H 


ELIZABETH  H-HANCJDCR 


THE  BETRAYAL 


THE  BETRAYAL 

A  Novel 


BY 

WALTER    NEALE 

AND 
ELIZABETH  H.   HANCOCK 


NEW  YORK  AND  WASHINGTON 

THE  NEALE  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
1910 


COPYRIGHT,  igio,  BY 
WALTER   NEALE 


TO  THOSE  YEOMEN  AND  PEASANTS  OF  VIRGINIA, 
LIVING    AND    DEAD,    WHO    HELPED    VIRGINIAN 
ARISTOCRATS  TO   ESTABLISH   IN   THE  VIRGINIAN 
NATION  A  GOVERNMENT  MORE   NEARLY  PERFECT  THAN 
ANY  OTHER  THAT  MAN  HAS  DEVISED,  AND  THE  HIGHEST 
CIVILISATION  THAT  HAS  EXISTED  ON  EARTH,  THIS  BOOK 
IS  DEDICATED   AS  A  SMALL  TOKEN  OF  THE  LOVE  THAT 
IS  BORNE  THEM  BY 

THE  GRATEFUL  AUTHORS. 


2137587 


AN   EXPLANATION 

In  the  preparation  of  this  book  I  helped 
Mr.  Neale  to  collect  data,  to  search  records, 
and  to  develop  several  of  the  minor  characters, 
but  the  story  is  his  conception,  and  is  wholly 
from  his  pen. 

ELIZABETH  H.  HANCOCK. 

Charlottesville,  Virginia, 

March  25,  igio. 


INTRODUCTION 

VIRGINIA,   aided  by  her  allies,  had  fought 
out  the  war  between  the  American  nations 
parties    to    the    treaty    of     1788     and    its 
amendments,  and  had  survived  the  ordeals  of  Recon 
struction,  when  she  faced  a  crisis  that  threatened 
her  civilisation. 

The  war  had  decided  one  question;  apparently  it 
had  decided  only  one:  no  country  a  party  to 
the  compact  of  1788  would  be  permitted  to  violate 
any  of  the  terms  of  that  agreement,  or  to  withdraw 
any  authority  delegated  to  the  federal  government 
under  that  compact. 

A  radical  readjustment  of  the  relations  of  the  na 
tions  to  one  another  in  the  event  of  the  success  of 
those  that  fought  to  enforce  the  treaty  was  not  ex 
pected  by  statesmen  of  any  of  the  countries,  north 
ern  or  southern;  nor  did  the  citizens  of  the  defeated 
nations,  during  the  first  few  months  after  the  Sur 
render,  suppose  that  those  sovereignties  would  lose 
their  autonomy  merely  because  .the  arbitrament  of 
arms  had  denied  them  the  right  to  withdraw  from 
the  compact  that  defined  their  international  relations 
—their  relations  to  one  another  and  to  other  na 
tions.  Indeed,  those  that  demanded  the  enforce 
ment  of  the  treaty  of  1788  fought  for  the  perpetua 
tion  of  all  the  terms  of  that  compact,  and  did  not 
expect  the  defeat  that  they  met  in  success — the  de 
struction  by  them  of  the  treaty  that  they  defended. 

Unwilling  to  jeopardise  her  sovereignty,   Massa- 


io  INTRODUCTION 

chusetts  had  refused  to  become  a  party  to  the  treaty 
of  1788  unless  that  agreement  should  be  amended  in 
this:  "First,  That  it  be  explicitly  declared  that  all 
Powers  not  expressly  delegated  by  the  aforesaid 
Constitution  are  reserved  to  the  several  States  to  be 
by  them  exercised."  1  The  "  amendments  &  altera 
tions  "  that  were  demanded  by  Massachusetts  were 
held  to  be  necessary  "  to  remove  fears  &  quiet 
apprehensions  of  many  of  the  good  people  of  this 
Commonwealth  &  more  effectually  guard  against  an 
undue  administration  of  the  Federal  Government." 

New  York  became  a  party  to  the  compact  after 
she  had  made  known  her  interpretation  of  the  agree 
ment  in  the  following  language:  "That  the  Powers 
of  Government  may  be  resumed  by  the  People, 
whensoever  it  shall  be  necessary  to  their  Happiness; 
that  every  Power,  Jurisdiction  and  right,  which  is 
not  by  the  said  Constitution  clearly  delegated  to  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  or  the  departments 
of  the  Government  thereof,  remains  to  the  People 
of  the  several  States,  or  to  their  respective  State 
Governments  to  whom  they  may  have  granted  the 
same;  And  that  those  clauses  in  the  said  Constitu 
tion,  which  declare,  that  Congress  shall  not  have  or 
exercise  certain  Powers,  do  not  imply  that  Congress 
is  entitled  to  any  Powers  not  given  by  the  said  Con 
stitution;  but  such  Clauses  are  to  be  construed  either 
as  exceptions  to  certain  specified  Powers,  or  as  in 
serted  merely  for  greater  caution."  3 

Rhode  Island,  one  of  the  nations  that  refused  to 
enter  into  the  compact,  in  time  offered  to  enter  into 

1  Documentary  History  of  the   Constitution  of  the   United  States, 
vol.  ii,  p.  94. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  93.  3  Ibid.,  p.   190. 


INTRODUCTION  n 

trade  relations  with  her  sister  nations,  and  "  at  the 
request  and  in  behalf  of  the  General  Assembly  "  her 
governor  forwarded  "  To  the  President,  the  Senate, 
and  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  eleven 
United  States  of  America  "  her  "  disposition  to  cul 
tivate  mutual  harmony  and  friendly  intercourse." 
The  papers  were  officially  labelled  "  Rhode  Island 
desires  to  maintain  friendly  relations  with  the 
United  States,"  and  bearing  that  label  were  laid  be 
fore  the  federal  congress  by  Washington,  September 
26,  1789.  Rhode  Island  continued  to  exercise  her 
sovereign  rights  unmolested  until  May  29,  1790, 
when  she  became  a  party  to  the  treaty  between  the 
American  nations,  at  her  request, — but  not  before 
she  had  imposed  the  following  conditions :  '  That 
the  powers  of  government  may  be  resumed  by  the 
people  whenever  it  shall  become  necessary  to  their 
happiness: — That  the  rights  of  the  States  respec 
tively,  to  nominate  and  appoint  all  State  Officers, 
and  every  other  power,  jurisdiction  and  right,  which 
is  not  by  the  said  constitution  clearly  delegated  to 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  or  to  the  depart 
ments  of  government  thereof,  remain  to  the  people 
of  the  several  states,  or  their  respective  State  Gov 
ernments  to  whom  they  may  have  granted  the 
same."  4 

When  assured  that  the  treaty  would  be  altered  to 
meet  their  requirements,  the  nations  that  had  re 
fused  to  enter  the  union  became  parties  to  the  com 
pact,  which  was  later  amended  in  language  that  was 
not  open  to  misinterpretation,  as  follows:  'The 
powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States  by  the 

4  Documentary  History   of  the   Constitution   of  the   United  States, 
vol.  ii,  p.  311. 


i2  INTRODUCTION 

Constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  States,  are 
reserved  to  the  States  respectively,  or  to  the  peo 
ple."  5 

"  That  the  several  States  forming  the  American 
Union  were,  subsequent  to  the  Treaty  of  Paris  in 
1783,  and  previous  to  the  adoption  of  the  present 
Constitution  in  1788,  inherently  sovereign  and  inde 
pendent,  there  can  be  no  doubt;  that  in  forming  the 
general  government  they  all  acted,  each  in  its  sov 
ereign  capacity,  can  not  be  questioned;  and  that  the 
several  States,  under  the  Constitution,  are  still  sov 
ereign,  except  in  those  particular  powers  expressly 
delegated  to  the  federal  government,  is  plainly  im 
plied  in  the  Constitution  itself,  and  has  been  reas 
serted  in  turn  by  almost  every  State,  or  group  of 
States,  in  the  Union."6 

Of  the  five  men,  says  John  Fiske,  who  moulded 
the  confederation  of  states,  Washington,  Jefferson, 
and  Madison  held  that  the  Constituton  was  a  com 
pact  between  the  states,  and  that  each  state  was  an 
independent  sovereignty. 

In  a  letter  to  Madison,  dated  August  3,  1788, 
Washington  used  the  following  words:  "Till  the 
States  begin  to  act  under  the  new  compact."  Madi 
son  described  the  new  confederation  as  "  a  govern 
ment  of  a  federal  nature,  consisting  of  many  co 
equal  sovereignties."  That  the  sovereignty  of  no 
state  was  affected  by  the  federal  union  Jefferson  fre 
quently  contended.7 

5  Amendments  to  the   Constitution,   Art.  x. 

0  Wayland's  Political  Opinions  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  p.  35. 
7  See  McKim's   The  Confederate  Soldier  and   Ewing's  Northern 
Rebellion  and  Southern  Secession,  two  publications  that  the  authors 
have   used    as   valuable   sources   in    the   preparation    of   this   intro 
duction. 


INTRODUCTION  13 

Another  Virginian,  Marshall,  the  father  of  the 
American  nation,  before  he  had  dreamed  his  dreams 
of  empire,  held  that  the  states  were  nations.  Dur 
ing  the  debate  on  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution 
he  used  the  following  words:  "Can  they  [Con 
gress]  go  beyond  the  delegated  powers?  If  they 
were  to  make  a  law  not  warranted  by  any  of  the 
powers  enumerated,  it  would  be  considered  by  the 
judges  [of  the  Supreme  Court]  as  an  infringement 
of  the  Constitution  which  they  are  to  guard.  .  .  . 
They  would  declare  it  void."  8 

As  a  union  is  a  combination  that  consists  of  two 
or  more  entities,  either  an  American  union  or  an 
American  nation  was  born  when  the  Constitution 
wras  adopted. 

The  word  "  union  "  appears  twenty  times  in  Lin 
coln's  first  inaugural  address,  but  not  once  was  the 
word  "nation"  used.  In  his  Gettysburg  oration 
the  word  "  union  "  is  not  mentioned,  but  the  word 
"  nation  "  appears  five  times.  In  less  than  three 
years  either  Lincoln's  language  or  the  Constitution 
had  expanded. 

In  his  first  inaugural  address  Lincoln  said:  "I 
hold  that,  in  contemplation  of  universal  law  and  of 
the  Constitution,  the  Union  of  these  States  is  per 
petual.  .  .  .  Continue  to  execute  all  the  express 
provisions  of  our  National  Constitution,  and  the 
Union  will  endure  forever.  .  .  ."  In  his  Gettys 
burg  address  he  said:  "  Fourscore  and  seven  years 
ago  our  fathers  brought  forth,  upon  this  continent, 
a  new  nation,  conceived  in  liberty,  and  dedicated  to 
the  proposition  that  '  all  men  are  created  equal.' 
Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil  war,  testing 

8  Magruder's  Life  of  Marshall,  p.  82. 


i4  INTRODUCTION 

whether  that  nation,  or  any  nation  so  conceived,  and 
so  dedicated,  can  long  endure.  .  .  .  It  is  rather 
for  us,  the  living,  to  be  here  dedicated  to  the  great 
task  remaining  before  us  ...  that  the  nation 
shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom,  and  that  govern 
ment  of  the  people  by  the  people  for  the  people, 
shall  not  perish  from  the  earth." 

Did  Lincoln  believe  that  a  republican  form  of 
government  existed  only  on  the  North  American 
continent  at  that  time?  Did  he  believe  that  a  re 
publican  form  of  government  was  tested  for  the  first 
time  by  the  American  states?  Did  he  believe  that 
government  of  the  people  by  the  people  for  the 
people  was  first  tried  by  the  united  American  states? 
Evidently  he  did,  for  Lincoln  was  no  demagogue, 
but  an  honourable  man,  and  a  profound  student  of 
statecraft — so  say  his  biographers. 

As  early  as  1619  Virginia  had  her  House  of  Bur 
gesses.  Her  government,  consisting  of  three  depart 
ments,  legislative,  executive,  and  judicial,  had  been 
in  operation  for  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  when  she  became  a  party  to  the  treaty  of  1788, 
and  during  all  that  time  she  had  been  a  nation,  and 
had  exercised  all  the  powers  of  sovereignty  that  she 
had  cared  to  assume.  Although  she  had  acknowl 
edged  allegiance  to  a  foreign  king,  that  king  had 
only  the  authority  that  she  had  delegated  to  him, 
and  hers  was  the  power  to  withdraw  that  authority, 
as  she  did  when  she  denied  his  parliament  the  right 
to  make  her  laws.  Virginia  exercised  the  powers 
of  a  nation  when  the  treaty  with  Cromwell's  commis 
sioners  was  made,  the  articles  being  signed  by  the 
Commissioners  on  behalf  of  England,  and  by  the 


INTRODUCTION  15 

Council  on  behalf  of  Virginia,  "  as  equal  treating 
equal,"  and  she  exercised  her  sovereign  powers  when 
her  civil  war,  known  as  Bacon's  Rebellion,  was 
fought  in  1676. 

No  nation  made  known  her  interpretation  of  the 
treaty  of  1788  in  clearer  terms  than  did  Virginia, 
for  she  published  to  the  world  that  the  powers  that 
she  intended  to  delegate  to  the  federal  government 
might  be  taken  back  by  her  people  "whenever  the 
same  shall  be  perverted  to  their  injury  or  oppression 
and  every  power  not  granted  remains  with  them  at 
their  will."  9  The  Constitution,  she  said,  would  have 
to  contain  the  following  words,  or  words  of  similar 
purport :  "  That  each  state  in  the  Union  shall,  re 
spectively,  retain  every  power,  jurisdiction  and  right 
which  is  not  by  this  Constitution  delegated  to  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  or  to  the  Depart 
ments  of  the  Federal  Government." 

The  rise  of  sectionalism  in  Virginia,  which  began 
soon  after  the  first  settlement  was  made  along  the 
James  river,  was  further  evidence  of  sovereignty. 
Again,  west  of  the  Blue  Ridge  Virginia's  territory 
was  populated  largely  by  foreigners,  nearly  all  of 
whom  were  peasants  and  yeomen.  In  1840  western 
Virginians  were  clamouring  for  more  liberal  repre 
sentation  in  the  Virginian  House  and  Senate,  and 
by  1860  civil  war  between  eastern  and  western  Vir 
ginia  was  threatened. 

All  functions  of  civil  government  that  were  sus 
pended  in  Virginia  during  the  four  years  of  military 
rule  were  resumed  immediately  after  Appomattox 
as  though  they  had  never  been  interrupted.  Recon 
struction  was  well  advanced  before  Virginians  fully 

8  Pulliam's    Constitutional  Laws   of   Virginia,   pp.   39-45. 


16  INTRODUCTION 

realised  that  their  sovereignty  was  in  jeopardy. 
Later  William  McKinley,  drawing  the  last  knife 
that  was  necessary  to  assassinate  the  American  na 
tions,  completed  the  destruction  of  the  treaty  that  he 
had  fought  to  perpetuate.  A  vast  American  republic 
was  created,  soon  to  evolve  into  an  empire,  with  a 
president  for  king.  The  new  empire  immediately 
entered  upon  a  colonial  policy,  and  in  a  few  months 
her  people  were  able  to  boast  that  the  sun  never  set 
upon  her  dominions.  Cleveland  tore  down  the  flag 
that  had  been  planted  in  dishonour;  McKinley  re 
placed  that  flag,  while  mobs,  drunk  with  imperial 
power,  tasted  for  the  first  time,  madly  shouted  that 
the  flag  should  "  stay  put."  The  peoples  of  sov 
ereign  states  had  become  the  American  people. 

The  early  settlers  in  Virginia,  having  no  desire  to 
be  rid  of  an  aristocratic  government,  did  not  intend 
to  plant  the  germ  of  a  republic.  On  the  contrary, 
they  sought  to  fashion  their  nation  after  that  of 
England.  Like  the  House  of  Lords,  the  King's 
Council  was  composed  of  members  of  the  aristoc 
racy;  and  the  House  of  Burgesses,  as  its  name  im 
plies,  was  made  after  the  House  of  Commons.  The 
planters  were  householders  and  freeholders,  and 
only  freeholders  were  permitted  to  govern  Virginia. 

As  in  England,  three  classes  made  up  the  social 
system, — the  aristocracy,  the  yeomanry,  and  the 
peasantry, — and  since  the  common  law  of  England 
that  defines  and  regulates  the  classes  is  still  the  law 
of  Virginia,  gentleman,  yeoman,  and  peasant  each 
holds  his  rank  by  virtue  of  that  law  now,  and  has 
held  his  rank  by  virtue  of  that  law  since  Virginia 
was  first  settled. 


INTRODUCTION  17 

The  books  of  public  records  of  the  counties  of 
Virginia  contain  thousands  of  entries  in  which  the 
rank  of  each  party  named  was  entered.  A  few 
copies  of  those  records  are  as  follows: 

William  and  Mary  Quarterly,  ix.,  p.  12:  "Pat 
ents  issued  during  Regal  government  to  Will  M. 
Spencer,  of  James  City,  yeoman,  etc.,  1624." 

Lower  Norfolk  County,  Virginia,  Antiquary,  i., 
p.  49:  "  On  the  5th  of  Feb.,  1728,  Thomas  Law- 
son,  Gent.,  sold  to  Nathaniel  Hutchings,  of  the  same 
county,  yeoman,  etc.,  of  Princess  Anne  Co." 

Spottsylvama  County  Records,  year  1769,  p.  268: 
"  John  Taliaferro  of  King  Geo.  Co.,  Gent.,  to 
William  Alsup." 

That  class  distinctions  were  recognised  in  Vir 
ginia  as  late  as  1840  is  shown  by  the  publication  in 
Richmond  during  that  year  of  a  periodical  entitled 
The  Yeoman. 

The  members  of  the  aristocracy  were  descended 
from  the  gentry  and  nobility  of  Europe,  principally 
from  England;  but  many  came  from  other  nations. 
The  yeomanry  was  similar  to  England's. 

The  peasantry,  mixed  as  it  was,  did  not  have  its 
counterpart  in  Europe.  Many  of  the  peasants  were 
of  the  bone  and  sinew  of  England's  peasantry,  others 
were  convicts  that  England  had  expelled;  some  were 
redemptioners,  others  came  from  Asia  Minor  and 
Italy,  and  a  few  were  stragglers  that  were  left  in 
the  wake  of  the  Revolutionary  army.  Indian  and 
negro  slaves,  never  classified  as  peasants,  were  re 
garded  as  chattels. 

Numerically  the  peasants  were  stronger  than  the 
yeomen,  and  the  yeomen  were  stronger  than  the 
aristocrats.  Although  the  convicts  in  many  instances 


i8  INTRODUCTION 

were  men  of  good  birth,  expelled  from  their  native 
land  for  treason  or  other  political  offences,  only  a 
few  succeeded  in  establishing  themselves  in  the  Vir 
ginian  aristocracy. 

These  peoples,  when  one  people,  required  a 
strong  government. 

The  various  classes  assumed  their  proper  rela 
tions  to  one  another  immediately  upon  their  arrival 
in  Virginia,  the  aristocracy  maintaining  its  author 
ity  over  the  other  two  classes.  There  was  no  more 
democracy  within  the  boundaries  of  the  present  state 
of  Virginia  from  the  time  of  the  first  settlement 
until  the  beginning  of  Reconstruction  than  there  was 
in  the  mother  country.  Yeoman  and  peasant  were 
satisfied  with  the  positions  in  life  to  which  their 
classes  assigned  them.  Neither  expected  to  be  an 
aristocrat,  but  each  expected  to  hand  down  to  his 
sons  and  daughters  their  birthright.  Nothing  more 
was  desired. 

The  aristocracy  was  well  equipped  for  leadership. 
In  the  struggle  for  existence  the  gentleman  became 
more  and  more  gracious  toward  those  below  him  in 
station.  Contact  with  men  of  inferior  birth  and 
breeding  gave  him  a  broader  humanity;  he  learned 
to  command  without  arrogance,  and  to  discharge 
the  obligations  of  his  rank  as  duties  rather  than  as 
God-given  privileges.  The  Virginian  aristocrat  was 
as  courteous  to  his  servant  as  he  was  to  his  equal. 
The  peasant  and  yeoman  loved  him;  the  negro 
looked  upon  him  as  the  great  white  master  in  whom 
there  could  be  no  wrong,  and  the  Indian  slave  re 
spected  as  well  as  hated  him.  Every  man  that  was 
a  part  of  the  social  system  of  Virginia  upheld  the 
dignity  of  his  class. 


INTRODUCTION  19 

Inevitable  class  distinctions  were  continued  after 
the  Revolution,  and  government  was  vested  in  the 
aristocracy,  as  it  was  before  that  war,  notwithstand 
ing  the  extension  of  suffrage  to  every  white  man  of 
twenty-one  years  and  more,  and  although  occasion- 
ally  a  yeoman  or  a  peasant  of  unusual  ability  would 
be  placed  in  office.  Every  aristocrat  had  his  follow 
ing  of  voters,  and  the  numerical  strength  of  that 
following  regulated  his  voice  in  the  government, 
and  to  some  extent  his  position  in  the  aristocracy. 
No  one  sought  an  office  for  its  emoluments.  Official 
work  was  regarded  by  the  gentry  as  a  necessary 
hardship  upon  the  aristocracy,  a  duty  to  be  per 
formed  at  much  sacrifice  of  time  and  temper.  As 
the  aristocracy,  individually  as  well  as  a  whole,  was 
directly  responsible  for  the  welfare  of  the  people, 
every  gentleman  had  a  part  in  the  affairs  of  the 
government,  if  merely  in  the  home  councils  of  office 
holders.  These  conditions  produced  broad  states 
men,  who  were  patriots,  distinguished  for  their 
ability  and  fidelity,  to  whom  all,  from  the  negro 
slave  to  the  cultured  aristocrat,  entrusted  their  po 
litical  welfare  without  question. 

Virginians  enjoyed  a  government  more  nearly  per 
fect  than  any  other  ever  devised  until  Reconstruc 
tion  succeeded  in  pitting  negro,  peasant,  and  yeo 
man  against  one  another  and  against  the  few  male 
members  of  the  aristocracy  that  had  survived  the 
war.  Then  the  peasant  was  taught  to  hate  negroes 
and  yeomen  as  well  as  aristocrats,  and  the  negro  to 
hate  every  member  of  the  Caucasian  race.  The  yeo 
man  learned  to  despise  the  peasant  and  negro  and 
to  hate  the  aristocrat.  Peasants  and  yeomen  alike 
envied  the  aristocrats,  and  determined  to  place 


20  INTRODUCTION 

themselves  in  the  class  that  they  envied,  and  to  de 
grade  their  superiors. 

In  the  course  of  her  national  advancement  Vir 
ginia  borrowed  large  sums  of  money  for  internal 
improvements  during  several  decades  previous  to  the 
war  of  1 86 1.  She  met  her  obligations  at  maturity 
until  her  ports  were  blockaded  by  her  invaders. 
The  first  legislature  that  met  after  the  war,  com 
posed  largely  of  the  aristocracy,  promptly  decided 
that  as  soon  as  possible  Virginia  should  pay  her  orig 
inal  debt,  with  accumulated  interest,  and  thereby 
prove  that  her  honour  had  not  been  affected  by  war. 
Then  came  Reconstruction,  the  soap  and  water  that 
the  victorious  nations  applied  to  their  unclean  sisters, 
and  at  the  close  of  the  scrubbing  period  Virginia, 
having  been  washed  clean,  was  again  permitted  to 
associate  with  her  sister  sovereignties  that  were  par 
ties  to  the  treaty  of  1788  and  its  amendments. 

The  public  debt  was  $31,187,999.32  on  January 
i,  1 86 1.  On  July  I,  1871,  it  had  increased  to 
$46,914,208.25,  bearing  interest  at  six  per  cent. 
In  1 86 1,  before  Virginia  had  been  devastated  by 
war,  her  taxable  property  was  assessed  at  $585,- 
099,322.77,  which  did  not  include  slaves  under 
twelve  years  old  and  other  valuable  personal  prop 
erty.  The  total  value  was  $709,807,711.65,  or 
more  than  $22  worth  of  property  for  each  dollar 
of  debt.  In  1873  the  assessed  value  of  Virginia's 
property  was  $336,684,433.23,  less  than  $8  worth 
of  property  for  each  dollar  of  debt. 

Governor  Kemper  appended  to  his  last  annual 
message  extracts  from  official  documents  that 
showed  that  the  burden  upon  the  entire  taxable  prop- 


INTRODUCTION  21 

erty  of  Virginia  amounted  to  about  five  and  one- 
half  per  cent.  Yet  the  bulk  of  that  taxable  property, 
because  of  the  chaos  that  had  been  brought  about 
by  war,  was  unproductive;  while  Reconstruction  had 
so  disorganised  all  the  working  classes  that  Vir 
ginia's  lands,  her  source  of  wealth  at  that  time,  were 
unfilled. 

General  Timothy  Murphy,  as  we  shall  call  him, 
saw  his  opportunity  in  these  conditions.  Organising 
a  party  consisting  of  carpetbaggers,  scalawags,  ne 
groes,  and  those  that  formerly  had  considered  them 
selves  yeomen  and  peasants,  he  opposed  the  few 
aristocrats  that  had  survived  the  war.  He  believed 
that  he  would  be  able  to  force  Virginia  to  acknowl 
edge  him  as  her  dictator. 

The  aristocrats  formed  themselves  into  a  political 
organisation  in  the  hope  that  they  would  be  able  to 
conserve  Virginia's  institutions  and  her  honour.  The 
organisation,  known  as  Debtpayers,  consisted  of  the 
members  of  the  gentry  that  belonged  to  the  great 
political  parties  that  were  in  Virginia  for  more  than 
fifty  years  immediately  preceding  the  war  of  1861-5. 

Murphy,  although  a  Confederate  major-general, 
known  the  world  over  as  the  hero  of  the  Crater, 
immediately  after  the  Surrender  had  been  com 
pelled  to  return  to  the  peasant  class  in  which  he  was 
born  and  reared. 

The  Democratic  party,  alias  the  Readjuster  party, 
alias  the  Repudiator  party,  alias  the  Eliminator 
party,  became  the  Murphy  party,  and  in  time  the 
Murphy  party  became  the  present  Democratic  party 
of  Virginia.  The  few  among  Murphy's  followers 
that  were  honest  were  so  blind  in  their  zeal  to  re- 


122  INTRODUCTION 

lieve  Virginia's  sufferings  as  to  fail  to  realise  the 
significance  of  the  Murphy  movement.  They  ad 
mitted  their  mistake  later — when  too  late  to  rees 
tablish  their  reputations  as  honest  men. 

No  Readjuster,  no  matter  by  what  alias  he  was 
known,  was  ever  forgiven  by  the  gentry. 

Virginia,  then,  was  in  her  death-throes  as  a  na 
tion,  with  the  ultimate  destruction  of  her  sover 
eignty  foreseen  by  some  of  her  statesmen,  when  she 
was  confronted  by  a  danger  from  within  that 
threatened  to  break  down  all  responsible  govern 
ment  and  to  alter  the  characteristics  of  her  people. 


THE  BETRAYAL 


CHAPTER   ONE 

Candles  burned  in  every  room  in  Morven,  the 
ancestral  home  of  the  Braxtons,  near  the  old  town 
of  Warrenton,  in  Virginia,  although  the  sun  had 
not  quite  disappeared  behind  the  spurs  of  the  dis 
tant  Blue  Ridge.  Servants  moved  about  the  lawn, 
lighting  Japanese  lanterns,  concealed  in  the  flower 
ing  shrubbery,  draped  in  graceful  festoons  from  tree 
to  tree,  and  swung  from  lofty  boughs. 

Judge  Ingram  Mayo  Braxton  and  Mrs.  Braxton 
had  issued  invitations  to  a  ball,  given  in  honour  of 
Lelia,  their  only  child,  to  celebrate  her  twentieth 
birthday. 

Long  ago,  when  Indians  and  wild  beasts  roamed 
the  forests  around  Warrenton,  and  it  was  danger 
ous  to  travel  by  night,  the  Braxton  guests  had  sought 
the  protection  of  the  strong  walls  of  Morven  before 
dark;  now,  no  matter  how  formal  the  occasion,  the 
massive  doors  of  the  old  mansion  were  flung  open 
at  sundown. 

The  month  was  April,  the  year  1879. 

The  fragrance  of  the  jessamine,  the  daffodil  and 
jonquil,  the  narcissus  and  the  hyacinth  was  in  the 
air — and  so  were  the  end  of  an  era,  the  fall  of  a 
dynasty,  and  the  death  of  a  people. 

A  nation  is  gayest  in  her  hour  of  danger.  We 
dance  with  our  sweethearts,  and  then  go  out  to  be 
shot;  our  country  is  engaged  in  a  desperate  strug- 

23 


24  THE    BETRAYAL 

gle  for  life,  and  we  are  all  merriment;  our  defenders 
need  food  and  clothing,  and  we  pay  enough  for  a 
single  evening  of  pleasure  to  equip  a  regiment. 
Never  had  Virginia  been  in  danger  so  great,  nor 
her  rulers  so  prodigal  in  their  hospitality. 

Young  men  and  young  women  who  held  life 
lightly  were  the  guests  of  the  Duchess  of  Richmond 
at  the  ball  that  she  gave  on  the  eve  of  Waterloo, 
eager  for  one  mad  revelry — then  death.  Those  in 
vited  to  the  Morven  ball  were  great-grandparents 
and  their  grandchildren,  their  children,  and  their 
children's  children — the  strength  of  Virginia. 

The  Morven  ball  was  a  call  to  arms. 

At  eight  o'clock  John  Randolph  Harrison,  a 
young  lawyer,  the  last  of  a  distinguished  family, 
pulled  up  his  horse  at  the  great  iron  gates  of  Mor 
ven,  now  wide  open,  and  told  his  man  Jake,  the  old 
family  coachman,  to  come  back  in  time  for  supper. 
He  wished  to  see  Lelia  Braxton  before  other  guests 
would  claim  her  attention. 

Although  he  was  not  the  first  to  reach  Morven, 
fortune  favoured  him,  for  he  had  taken  but  a  few 
strides  up  the  long  brick  walk  which  extends  from 
the  mansion  to  the  gates  when  he  saw  Colonel  Fran 
cis  Southall  Daingerfield  and  Mrs.  Daingerfield  on 
the  lawn  with  the  judge.  They  were  measuring  the 
spread  of  an  oak,  planted  by  the  first  Morven 
Braxton,  Sir  William,  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
before.  Notwithstanding  the  moonlight  and  the 
brilliant  illuminations,  the  young  man  succeeded  in 
entering  the  house  without  attracting  their  atten 
tion. 

William,  the  old  butler,  after  greeting  him  with 


THE    BETRAYAL  25 

respectful  cordiality,  directed  him  to  Miss  Brax- 
ton. 

He  found  her  in  the  hall  just  back  of  the  great 
stair.  She  had  made  the  nook  into  a  bower  of 
apple  blossoms — "  For  lovers,"  she  had  laughingly 
told  her  father. 

"  Oh,  John,  how  could  you !  " 

He  kissed  the  extended  hand. 

"  What  have  you  done !    What  have  you  done !  " 

"  Lelia,  love,  listen.  Virginia  has  no  money. 
Her  debts  amount  to  more  than  forty-seven  mil 
lions.  The  Debtpayers  say,  '  Pay  the  debt ! '  but 
offer  words  in  payment,  and  nothing  more.  The 
Readjusters  say,  '  Pay  the  debt ! '  too,  and  they  have 
a  plan  by  which  every  cent  of  it  can  be  paid  in 
time." 

"  John,  you  can  not, — you,  a  Virginian, — you  can 
not  mean  to  compromise  with  our  creditors !  Not 
that!  Say  that  you  do  not  mean  that,  John!  " 

"  The  debt  shall  be  paid,  Lelia,  every  dollar  that 
we  owe.  Not  now,  for  the  revenues  of  the  state  are 
not  sufficient  to  pay  even  the  more  important  cur 
rent  expenses  of  the  government,  while  our  people 
are  already  taxed  beyond  endurance;  but  General 
Murphy  proposes  to  effect  an  honourable  settlement 
with  our  creditors,  and  ultimately  every  one  of  them 
shall  be  paid  in  full." 

"  The  only  way  to  settle  a  debt  is  to  pay  it  when 
it  is  due." 

How  could  he  make  her  understand,  this  noble 
girl.  Yet  he  must  have  her  approval  as  well  as  her 
faith  and  her  love. 

"A  Debtpayer  interrupted  my  speech  this  morn 
ing,  dear,  with  the  same  statement.  I  replied  to 


26  THE    BETRAYAL 

him  as  I  can  not  reply  to  you,  and  said,  '  Give  me 
money,  instead  of  mere  words,  and  the  debt  shall 
be  paid  before  that  sun  goes  down.' ' 

"Oh,  John,  did  you  say  that?" 

44  Yes;  and  his  answer  was  not  meant  as  a  retort. 
4  Your  father  was  a  gentleman,  sir,'  was  all  that  he 
said." 

"  A  Virginian  gentleman  will  never  consent  to 
postpone  the  payment  of  a  debt.  Never,  never, 
never!  " 

"  But  when  there  is  no  money?  " 

"  Still  a  gentleman  will  always  demand  the  right 
to  pay  his  debts." 

"In  words?" 

'  That  is  not  worthy  of  you.  Honest  men  do 
not  readjust  their  debts." 

For  a  while  he  said  nothing  more;  then  he  spoke 
in  a  voice  that  was  clear,  but  low,  and  full  of  sor 
row: 

4  You,  too,  believe  me  to  be  dishonourable.'* 

"No,  John;  no,  no,  no!  I  honour  you  as  much 
as  I  love  you.  I  must,  oh,  I  must — make  you  see 
your  mistake !  " 

She  took  his  hand  in  both  hers.  For  the  first 
time  in  her  life  she  kissed  it. 

4  You  are  a  part  of  Virginia,  John — her  noble 
part;  and — and — I  love  you." 

"  No,  you  do  not  love  me." 

He  paused.  Never  before  had  she  been  so  beau 
tiful.  Then,  as  she  did  not  speak,  he  continued, 
while  she  unconsciously  looked  at  his  hand,  which 
she  gently  stroked: 

'  You  think  my  course  is  dishonourable.  A  man 
can  not  be  noble  while  his  conduct  is  ignoble." 


THE    BETRAYAL  27 

"Yes,  he  can,  dear;  yes,  he  can — without  realis 
ing  that  he  is  wrong !  " 

Nothing  else  was  said  for  a  while;  then  Lelia 
Braxton  rose  and  stood  with  averted  face,  toying 
nervously  with  a  spray  of  blossoms;  and  then,  draw 
ing  herself  up  with  just  a  suggestion  of  pride,  she 
looked  steadily  into  the  fine  eyes  of  her  lover. 

"  But,  John,  the  man  that  I  marry  shall  be  hon 
ourable  in  all  that  he  does  as  well  as  noble  in  char 
acter." 

He  had  known  that. 

The  orchestra,  stationed  in  the  conservatory,  just 
off  the  ballroom,  reminded  Lelia  Braxton  of  her 
duties  as  hostess.  She  took  John  Harrison's  arm 
soon  after  the  first  strains  of  the  grand  march  from 
Tannhauser  reached  them,  and  they  walked  down 
the  broad  hall,  her  hand  trembling  as  it  barely 
touched  his  arm.  He  spoke  to  her  in  a  low,  firm 
voice. 

"  Lelia,  I  have  decided — for  the  honour  of  Vir 
ginia — yes,  for  her  honour.  Please  let  me  see  you 
later — please?  I  have  more  to  say." 

She  did  not  reply;  nor  had  she  even  looked  at 
him,  he  thought,  when  he  bowed  to  her  at  the 
drawing-room  door  as  she  left  him  to  take  her  place 
at  the  side  of  her  mother. 

Unobserved,  John  Harrison  made  his  way  into 
the  night.  He  felt  that  for  a  while  he  must  be  alone. 
Later  he  would  return  to  be  formally  announced, 
and  to  face  the  cold  civility  of  those  that  he  had 
known  all  his  life. 

That  afternoon  as  he  was  returning  to  the  home 
of  his  ancestors,  which  he  had  inherited  from  his 


28  THE    BETRAYAL 

father,  he  had  extended  his  hand  with  boyish  glad 
ness  to  the  friend  who  had  been  the  Harrison  fam 
ily  physician  for  three  generations.  The  old  gen 
tleman  had  looked  him  straight  in  the  eyes,  so 
straight  that  he  had  not  seen  the  outstretched 
hand. 

"  John  Harrison, — John  Randolph  Harrison, — 
you  have  shamed  Virginia.  I  thank  God  that  your 
father  died  before  his  son  deserted  his  people  to 
join  Tim  Murphy's  party  of  thieves.  Stop,  sir, 
stop  !  Not  a  word !  Your  speech  of  to-day  was  the 
most  disgraceful  utterance  ever  made  in  this  land. 
Leave  my  sight,  sir !  " 

Now  those  words  rang  in  John  Harrison's  ears 
as  he  leaned  heavily  against  an  old  oak  and  drank 
in  the  night  air  and  its  fragrance.  He  did  not  regret 
the  step  that  he  had  taken.  He  had  known  that  his 
motives  would  be  misunderstood,  that  the  best  people 
of  Virginia,  his  friends  and  his  father's  friends, 
would  not  tolerate  his  course.  Within  an  hour  from 
the  time  that  his  speech  was  made  in  which  he  had 
announced  his  allegiance  to  Murphy's  Readjusters  he 
was  forced  to  feel  the  burden  of  his  new  position. 
He  felt  no  self-pity.  The  Harrison  men  had  all 
been  men.  Now  he  must  make  Lelia  understand — 
he  must  make  thousands  of  Virginians  see  that  their 
honour  could  be  saved  only  through  a  readjustment 
of  the  debt  under  conditions  that  ultimately  would 
provide  for  its  full  payment.  In  his  boyish  way — 
he  was  twenty-nine,  but  young  for  his  years — he 
thought  that  his  life  and  happiness  were  poor  things 
to  offer  to  the  land  of  his  fathers. 

Lelia  Braxton  had  barely  reached  the  side  of  her 


THE    BETRAYAL  29 

mother  when  Captain  Charles  Churchill  Lancaster, 
of  Charlottesville,  was  announced. 

When  a  mere  boy  Captain  Lancaster  had  mar 
ried  a  peasant.  A  gentlewoman  never  entered  a 
lower  class  than  her  own  when  she  married,  nor  did 
the  man  below  her  in  social  rank  that  she  married 
ever  become  a  part  of  the  aristocracy;  but  her  chil 
dren  were  her  husband's  children,  and,  as  his  chil 
dren,  were  always  a  part  of  his  class.  A  gentleman 
might  marry  a  peasant,  retain  his  social  position,  his 
wife  be  tolerated  by  the  aristocracy,  and  his  chil 
dren,  despite  the  vulgarity  learned  from  their 
mother,  be  invited  to  formal  social  affairs;  but  his 
grandchildren's  position  in  society  was  determined 
largely  by  their  father's  conduct.  Such  marriages 
were  rare. 

A  hero  of  four  wars, — Mexican,  Crimean,  Con 
federate,  and  Reconstruction, — Captain  Lancaster 
had  not  closely  observed  distinctions  of  caste.  His 
vulgar  wife  had  sense  enough  to  stay  quietly  at 
home,  where  she  nursed  in  secret  her  ambition 
for  her  five  daughters,  and  where  she  perfected 
her  scheme  by  which  each  daughter  should  take  a 
higher  place  in  the  world  than  could  be  reached  by 
marriage  to  a  Virginian  gentleman.  She  had  suc 
ceeded  in  marrying  four  of  them  into  English  fam 
ilies  of  questionable  standing  and  New  York  families 
known  for  their  ostentatious  display  of  wealth,  and 
daily  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  their  names  appear 
in  the  Metropolitan  press.  Indeed,  her  daughters 
had  been  able  to  create  the  impression  in  London 
and  New  York  that  they  were  representative  of 
Virginian  aristocracy. 

"Ah,  Captain,"  said  Judge  Braxton,   "these  are 


30  THE    BETRAYAL 

troublous  times;  but  they  are  not  without  their  com 
pensations,  for  they  bring  to  Morven  friends  that 
have  not  been  in  my  home  since  the  war." 

"But  where  is  your  daughter?"  asked  Mrs. 
Braxton,  who  had  expected  Miss  Lancaster  to  ac 
company  her  father. 

"  Oh,  I  left  Gladys  at  the  Warren-Green,  prink 
ing.  She  says  it's  not  fashionable  to  get  to  a  ball 
before  half-past  ten.  Jim  Temple  will  bring  her 
along  some  time  before  midnight." 

"  Virginian  traditions,  Captain,  must  not  give  way 
to  Yankee  customs.  Miss  Lancaster  will  deny  us  a 
great  deal  of  pleasure  if  we  are  not  to  enjoy  her 
company  before  midnight." 

When  Mrs.  Braxton  spoke  with  formality  her 
language  and  manner  were  similar  to  those  of  her 
distinguished  husband,  for  twenty  years  an  associate 
justice  of  Virginia's  highest  court.  The  Richmond 
home  of  the  Braxtons  was  closed,  and  would  not  be 
reopened  until  the  court,  now  on  vacation,  would 
convene  in  the  fall. 

Colonel  Daingerfield,  who  represented  Warrenton 
in  the  Virginian  Senate,  was  the  centre  of  a  group 
that  had  gathered  in  the  library. 

'  To-night  as  I  drove  through  these  spacious 
grounds,  so  beautifully  illuminated,  so  like  Aladdin's 
fairy-land,  I  heard  the  songs  of  the  night  birds  of 
spring.  Their  music  was  the  melancholy  dirge  that 
is  always  sung  by  the  birds  of  the  air  when  they 
give  warning  of  impending  calamity.  The  sad  notes 
of  the  whippoorwill  plaintively  called  to  Virginia's 
sons  to  come  to  her  rescue,  to  save  her  untarnished 
escutcheon  from  dishonour." 


THE     BETRAYAL  31 

"  To-night,  Colonel,"  a  merry  young  girl  mocked 
him;  "why,  sir,  it  was  evening  when  you  reached 
Morven,  was  it  not?  " 

"  No,  ma'am,  no !  These  are  sad  days,  as  my 
good  brother-in-law,  Judge  Braxton,  says,  sad  in 
deed;  but,  thank  God,  night  in  Virginia  still  comes 
with  the  stars.  An  hour  of  twilight,  and  Evening 
goes  forth  to  meet  her  lord  the  Night — so  beauti 
fully  expressed  by  McDonald  Clarke  in  those  im 
mortal  words  that  no  Virginian  can  forget — 

"  '  Now  twilight  lets  her  curtain  down, 
And  pins  it  with  a  star.' " 

'You  still  read  Clarke,  Colonel?"  asked  young 
Tom  Tazewell. 

'Yes,  sir;  I  do.  The  lines  are  not  so  beautiful 
as  some  of  those  by  Landor,  nor  do  they  equal  those 
of  the  wizard  Lanier,  whose  sweet  songs  made 
Heaven  stoop  to  kiss  the  face  of  Dawn;  but,  sir,  I 
take  quite  as  much  pleasure  in  reading  Clarke  and 
Landor  as  I  do  the  Yankee  rhymster  Whitman  and 
that  excellent  young  person  in  New  York  who  refers 
to  herself  as  a  '  poetess  of  passion.' ' 

Whereupon  Colonel  Daingerfield  offered  his  arm 
to  Mrs.  Daingerfield,  claiming  her  promise  for  the 
mazurka  as  the  riotous  music  of  the  Polish  dance 
came  from  the  ballroom. 

Miss  Boiling  turned  to  General  Dabney: 
"  In  our  time  all  Virginian  gentlemen  wrote  son 
nets  and  roundelays  to  the  ladies  of  their  acquaint 


ance." 


"  But,  Aunt  Polly,"  protested  a  young  girl,  "  the 
young  men  of  to-day  write  them  too — beautiful, 
beautiful  poems." 


32  THE    BETRAYAL 

The  old  general  bowed  low,  his  right  hand  pressed 
against  his  heart. 

"To  you,  madam?" 

The  fair  young  girl  blushed  deeply,  but  archly 
looked  up  into  General  Dabney's  face. 

"Oh,  no,  sir;  but  all  my  friends  have  many, 
many,  many;  their  Bibles  are  full  of  beautiful 
poems." 

"  Madam,  if  the  young  men  have  neglected  a 
flower  so  fair,  one  so  beautiful  as  yourself,  I  beg 
leave  now  to  compose  a  sonnet  that  shall  be  some 
small  token  of  the  inspiration  that  surges  within  me 
as  I  gaze  upon  your  loveliness." 

"Oh,  oh!" 

She  buried  her  scarlet  face  in  her  hands,  but  rogu 
ishly  looked  at  the  old  general  through  her  fingers 
while  he  fervently  declaimed  his  lines,  his  eyes 
ablaze  with  youth  and  love. 

"  Array'd  in   dewdrops,  pearls   of  wanton  Day, 
The  blushing  rose  awaits  her  noble  liege, 
While  saucy  streamlets  pause  along  their  way, 
Her  tender  heart  in  whispers  to  besiege, 
Then  on ;  the  ardent  lord,  with  shafts  that  burn, 
In  fury  bursts  from  out  the  mystic  blue : 
Enthrall'd,  I  mutely  stand ;  and  then— I  turn 
To  that  rare  beauty  that  I  find  in  you. 
For  never  rose  so  fair  as  your  soft  cheek, 
Nor  heaven  so  deep  as  your  unfathom'd  eyes; 
Your  tears  the  dewdrops  that  your  roses  seek, 
The  mirth  of  waters  in  your  laughter  lies. 

And  you  are  what  sweet  Morning  ne'er  can  be — 
A   golden   chain   that  binds   my   memory." 

"  Do    you    think   that   was    spontaneous   combus 
tion?"  young  Tazewell  whispered  to  Miss  Boiling. 
She  laughed  softly. 


THE    BETRAYAL  33 

"  He  does  not  remember  that  he  recited  those 
same  lines  to  me  more  than  forty  years  ago." 

Miss  Betty  Dabney,  her  face  flushed  from  danc 
ing,  came  out  of  the  ballroom  with  Mr.  Byrd  Dan- 
dridge,  a  youth  of  four  and  twenty,  Warrenton's 
hereditary  magistrate,  whose  hand  and  heart  she 
had  refused  at  least  once  a  week  for  six  months. 

"  No,  Mr.  Dandridge,  I  will  not  go  to  the  con 
servatory  with  you — I  just  will  not." 

"  Then  we  will  go  to  the  grotto." 

"  No." 

"  Come,  Betty,"  said  her  brother,  Gary  Gordon 
Dabney,  as  he  came  up  to  them,  "  we  will  finish  this 
dance." 

He  led  her  to  the  ballroom,  leaving  Mr.  Dan 
dridge  to  wonder  at  Miss  Dabney' s  rapid  recovery. 
She  had  just  told  him  that  she  was  too  tired  to 
dance  another  step. 

General  George  Mason  Dabney  had  lost  five  sons 
in  the  war  of  1861;  another  son  had  been  killed 
while  fighting  under  Maximilian;  one  of  his  married 
daughters  lived  in  Norfolk,  another  near  Lynch- 
burg,  and  Betty,  his  only  unmarried  daughter,  and 
Gary,  his  only  son  that  had  not  been  killed  in  battle, 
lived  with  him  in  the  old  Dabney  home  near  War- 
renton.  Mrs.  Dabney  died  while  Betty  was  a  little 
girl.  The  old  general  had  retired  from  the  practice 
of  law,  and  already  Gary,  his  worthy  successor,  al 
though  not  quite  thirty-two,  was  regarded  as  the 
ablest  lawyer  in  northern  Virginia.  Twice  he  had 
refused  a  seat  in  Congress,  saying  that  he  could  best 
serve  Virginia  as  a  private  citizen.  He  had  recently 
assumed  the  leadership  of  the  Debtpayers  of  Fau- 


34  THE    BETRAYAL 

quier  county,  and  even  now  was  thought  to  be  the 
logical  candidate  of  his  party  for  governor. 

Byrd  Dandridge,  his  solemn  face  showing  none  of 
the  elation  that  he  felt  in  watching  Betty  Dabney 
dance  with  her  brother  instead  of  with  one  of  his 
many  rivals,  joined  an  animated  group  that  had 
gathered  on  the  verandah. 

Mr.  Carter  was  the  first  to  greet  him. 

'  Young  man,  you  come  in  time  to  hear  us  de 
nounce  John  Harrison,  who  prefers  the  society  of 
scalawags  and  negroes  to  that  of  gentlemen." 

"  Doctor  Carter,  pardon  me,  sir.  I  know  that 
John  Harrison  is  an  honourable  man.  He  is  a  gen 
tleman,  sir.  He  is  my  friend." 

"  Doctor,  sir — doctor?  How  dare  you,  sir!  God 
bless  me,  what  is  the  matter  with  the  children !  " 

The  venerable  physician  was  eighty-six  years  old. 
He  had  practised  for  sixty-five  years,  and  during 
that  time  had  not  permitted  any  one  to  address  him 
by  the  title  that  he  had  earned  as  first  in  his  class  in 
medicine.  "  Quacks,  sir,"  he  used  to  say,  "  are  doc 
tors;  not  gentlemen — not  Virginian  gentlemen." 

Mr.  Carter's  sobriquet  during  three  generations 
had  been  "  Old  Kill-'em-or-cure-'em,"  while  Dr. 
Ewell,  his  only  medicaj  rival,  five  years  his  junior, 
had  been  called  "  Old  Linger-'em-er-long."  These 
nicknames  arose  from  the  noise  made  by  the  two 
physicians  in  compounding  drugs  in  their  stone  mor 
tars  with  pestles  made  from  the  roots  of  the  dog 
wood.  To  the  youthful  fancies  of  the  children  that 
used  to  gather  around  them  it  seemed  that  old 
Mr.  Carter  pounded  out  in  rapid  jerks,  "  Kill-'em- 
or-cure-'em,  kill-'em-or-cure-'em,  kill-'em-or-cure- 
em,"  while  Dr.  Ewell  with  ponderous  move- 


THE    BETRAYAL  35 

ments  slowly  ground  out,  "  Linger-'em-er-long, 
linger-'em-er-long,  linger-'em-er-long." 

The  rival  physicians  had  different  methods  of 
practice.  Mr.  Carter  always  prescribed  ten  grains 
of  calomel  and  twenty-four  grains  of  quinine,  while 
Dr.  Ewell's  practice  was  altogether  in  surgery. 
He  never  prescribed  medicine  for  adults,  but  relied 
upon  major  operations,  with  his  instrument  the  mus 
tard  plaster,  applied  to  the  feet  of  his  adult  patients. 
Neither  physician  had  lost  a  patient  from  any  cause 
other  than  old  age. 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  interest  in  Warrenton 
in  the  ultimate  decision  as  to  the  merits  of  the  two 
schools  of  medicine — would  Mr.  Carter  or  Dr. 
Ewell  live  the  longer?  The  Reverend  Doctor  Nel 
son  was  attending  the  annual  convocation  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  Richmond  when  the  time  came 
for  Dr.  Ewell  to  die,  so  the  burial  service  was  read 
by  Mr.  Carter.  Grief  almost  overwhelmed  him 
until  he  reached  that  part  of  the  service  which  says, 
"  Man,  that  is  born  of  a  woman,  hath  but  a  short 
time  to  live,"  when,  Captain  Temple  said,  the  old 
gentleman's  eyes  shone  brightly  as  he  thought  that 
his  rival  had  been  cut  off  in  the  bloom  of  his  youth, 
at  eighty-one  years,  through  his  ignorant  practice  of 
medicine. 

"  Sir,"  Mr.  Carter  continued,  "  Mr.  Harrison 
has  shamed  Virginia.  Our  country  has  little  left  to 
her  but  honour.  Tim  Murphy  and  Parson  Jones 
and  John  Harrison  shall  not  take  that  from  her 
while  I  live." 

Lelia  Braxton  had  joined  the  group  unobserved 
by  the  good  old  doctor.  Now  he  saw  her  pale  face 
turn  scarlet.  He  put  his  hand  on  her  golden  hair, 


36  THE    BETRAYAL 

and  bending  back  her  head  looked  into  her  eyes  as 
he  said  in  tones  too  low  to  be  heard  by  the  others, 
"  There,  child,  there;  John  Harrison  is  a  good  boy." 
But  the  hurt  was  deep.  Her  godfather  had 
merely  put  into  words  what  all  felt — John  Harri 
son,  her  John,  the  man  to  whom  she  had  given  her 
heart,  had  deserted  his  country  in  her  hour  of  trial, 
to  join  those  that  would  take  from  Virginia  all  that 
she  had  left — her  good  name. 

Lelia  Braxton  trembled  with  emotion  that  she 
vainly  endeavoured  to  suppress.  John  Harrison 
had  been  announced.  Would  he  be  received  with 
cold,  formal  courtesy?  Would  her  guests  be  able 
to  hide  their  indignation?  Would  he  openly  resent 
the  hostility  that  everywhere  was  evident?  No;  as 
the  manly  figure  of  her  lover  advanced,  she  knew 
that  the  dignity  and  force  of  his  personality  would 
compel  respect.  Nevertheless,  she  observed  a  per 
ceptible  change  in  her  father's  manner. 

Already  the  judge  had  decided  that  youth  was  the 
only  plea  in  extenuation  that  could  be  offered  in 
behalf  of  John  Harrison.  But  he  determined  to 
hear  the  young  man's  arguments,  then  endeavour  to 
point  out  his  errors  to  him.  Youth  always  had  a 
long  day  in  the  judge's  court. 

Lelia  Braxton  tried  to  read  her  father's  ultimate 
decision  in  his  face;  but  never  before  had  his  fea 
tures  been  so  inscrutable.  His  decision,  her  deci 
sion,  Virginia's  decision,  would  be  determined  by 
John  Harrison  himself. 

Judge  Braxton  and  Mrs.  Braxton  received  the 
young  man  with  all  the  cordiality  that  is  required  by 
the  laws  of  hospitality,  yet  with  a  restraint  that  they 


THE    BETRAYAL  37 

could  not  altogether  control.  Mrs.  Daingerfield, 
Mrs.  Braxton's  sister,  greeted  him  affectionately. 
She  believed  in  him. 

Mr.  Harrison  turned  from  Mrs.  Daingerfield  to 
her  husband. 

"How  do  you  do,  Colonel?" 

"How  do  you  do,  Mr.  Harrison?" 

Then  the  old  gentleman  became  more  florid  than 
usual.  He  realised  that  he  had  hesitated  in  taking 
the  outstretched  hand,  thus  violating  one  of  the  laws 
of  hospitality. 

Apparently  John  Harrison  had  not  observed  the 
colonel's  hesitation,  but  all  others  in  the  group 
plainly  showed  their  embarrassment. 

"  Miss  Braxton,  this  is  my  dance,"  said  Mr.  Har 
rison,  offering  his  arm.  As  she  took  it  she  flashed 
a  look  upon  her  uncle,  and  the  meaning  of  her  words 
could  not  be  mistaken : 

"  Colonel  Daingerfield,  I  thank  you  for  your  kind 
ness  in  assisting  me  to  receive  my  guests." 

"  A  sprightly  girl,"  said  the  colonel,  feigning  in 
difference. 

"  A  loyal,  lovable  girl,"  replied  Mrs.  Dainger 
field,  as  she  looked  straight  into  the  eyes  of  her  liege 
lord. 

Her  sister  then  poured  oil  on  the  turbulent  waters : 

"  How  lovely  you  look  to-night,  Sue." 

Judge  Braxton  placed  his  hand  on  the  shoulder 
of  young  Tom  Tazewell,  who  had  recently  read  law 
under  him  for  six  months. 

u  Well,  my  boy,  were  you  successful  in  your  ex 
amination?  " 

"  Yes,  sir.     I  appeared  before  Judge  Jeffries,  of 


38  THE    BETRAYAL 

King  and  Queen  county,  and  he  asked  me  four  ques 
tions." 

"What  were  they,  sir?" 

"  Well,  Judge,  I  think  that  I  can  recall  the  whole 
of  the  examination  for  you. 

"'Your  father's  name,  sir?' 

"  '  Thomas  Waller  Tazewell.' 

'  What,  sir !  you  are  a  son  of  my  old  friend 
Tazewell  ? ' 

"  '  Yes,  sir.' 
'Who  was  your  mother?' 

"  '  Margaret  Hunter.' 

"  '  Bless  my  soul !  I  knew  her  well  before  she 
was  nearly  as  old  as  you.  Your  mother  was  a  very 
beautiful  woman,  Tom.  You  have  her  eyes,  sir. 
Who  directed  your  law  studies?' 

"  '  Judge  Ingram  Mayo  Braxton.' 

'  Bless  my  soul,  bless  my  soul !  A  good  lawyer, 
sir,  although  I  did  beat  him  badly,  very  badly,  in 
the  last  case  in  which  I  was  opposed  to  him.' ' 

"Was  that  all?" 

'  Then,  sir,  he  handed  me  my  certificate." 

"  Ha,  ha,  ha !  I  wish  my  examinations  had  been 
as  easy  as  yours,  Mr.  Tazewell,"  laughed  the  merry 
Miss  Betty. 

"  Nevertheless,  young  lady,"  said  Judge  Braxton, 
'  Judge  Jeffries  never  gave  a  certificate  to  any  man 
that  did  not  deserve  one.  All  the  information  that 
he  requires  as  to  the  qualifications  of  an  applicant  is 
the  name  of  his  parents  and  teacher.  A  lawyer  that 
is  a  gentleman  is  always  a  good  lawyer." 

The  guests  gathered  here  and  there  in  groups. 
Ladies  as  well  as  gentlemen  anxiously  discussed  the 


THE    BETRAYAL  39 

dangers  that  confronted  Virginia.     Murphy,  Jones, 
Harrison — those  names  were  on  everybody's  lips. 

"  Mr.  Carter,"  said  Mrs.  Daingerfield,  who  was 
in  a  playful  mood,  "  I  understand  that  Dr. 
Smythe,  the  young  physician  who  recently  settled  in 
Warrenton,  uses  many  new  methods  in  his  practice." 

"  Madam,  Dr.  Smythe  truly  represents  the  un 
fortunate  conditions  that  threaten  to  overwhelm  us. 
Dr.  Ewell  affixed  his  medical  title  to  his  name, 
and  even  accepted  fees  for  his  services  to  his  neigh 
bours;  I  have  never  been  able  to  understand  his 
course;  but  he  was  a  gentleman,  notwithstanding  his 
mistaken  attitude  toward  his  noble  calling." 

The  old  gentleman's  eyes  flashed,  and  his  tall, 
spare  figure  stood  full  six  feet  as  he  continued  to 
expound  the  ethics  of  medical  men. 

"  Madam,  no  man  has  the  right  to  charge  for 
his  deeds  of  kindness.  No  man  should  enter  upon 
the  practice  of  medicine  unless  he  is  a  gentleman, 
and  has  means  ample  for  his  support  while  he  de 
votes  his  life  to  saving  the  lives  of  others.  Clergy 
men  and  physicians  that  live  by  their  deeds  of 
humanity  are  not  worthy  to  associate  with  their 
fellowmen.  There  was  a  time  in  Virginia  when 
clergymen  and  physicians  served  God  and  their 
neighbours  without  pay — nay,  no  man  dared  to  in 
sult  them  by  offering  money  for  their  good  works. 
That  time  is  no  more." 

"  But,  Mr.  Carter,"  said  a  boy  of  twelve  ear 
nestly,  "  the  labourer  is  worthy  of  his  hire.  I 
thought  that  a  man  could  take  money  for  serving 
God  and  his  neighbour,  sir,  if  he  took  only  just 
enough  for  his  support." 


40  THE    BETRAYAL 

"  No,  sir,  no.  A  layman,  even  a  native  of  Ver 
mont,  would  not  charge  for  saving  the  life  of  a 
drowning  man;  no  Pennsylvanian,  however  humble 
his  station,  would  charge  for  kneeling  down  at  the 
bedside  of  a  friend  and  offering  a  prayer  to  God. 
Men  that  live  by  relieving  the  sufferings  of  their 
neighbours  are  not  worthy  to  take  the  hand  of  an 
honest  man." 

Those  that  had  gathered  about  Mr.  Carter  were 
his  children,  he  felt — four  generations  of  them.  He 
had  been  in  attendance  when  most  of  them  were 
born,  and  was  among  their  sponsors  in  baptism. 
They  listened  to  him  with  respectful  attention.  Was 
he  not  the  spirit  of  Virginia? 

"  My  children,  men  like  Dr.  Smythe  will  come 
among  you  and  try  to  lead  you  into  evil  ways.  They 
will  introduce  many  diseases  to  you,  apply  new  rem 
edies,  invent  instruments  to  dazzle  you.  The  world 
has  not  changed  in  fundamentals.  You  will  have 
no  better  health  under  their  treatment  when  I  am 
gone,  and  you  will  live  no  longer." 

"  And  we  will  be  better  off,  Mr.  Carter,"  said  a 
young  man  banteringly,  "  if  we  continue  to  take  ten 
grains  of  calomel  and  twenty-four  grains  of  qui 
nine?" 

The  old  physician's  eyes  twinkled.  He  knew  that 
his  remedies  had  been  a  joke  among  his  affectionate 
patients  during  three  generations. 

"A  few  days  since  I  met  Dr.  Smythe,  to  whom 
I  recited  a  few  of  the  beautiful  lines  of  Horace. 
'Lord,  Mr.  Carter,'  he  said,  'I  don't  know  no 
Latin;  but  did  you  ever  see  a  fever  thermometer? 
It  beats  all  the  Latin  in  the  world  when  you  get 
down  to  malaria.'  I  took  the  toy  and  snapped  it 


THE    BETRAYAL  41 

with  my  two  hands  as  I  would  a  straw.  The  im 
pertinent  young  fellow  actually  thought  that  after 
sixty-five  years  of  practice  I  could  not  tell  when  a 
patient  had  a  fever." 

Colonel  Daingerfield  joined  the  group. 

"  Mr.  Carter,  sir,  your  objections  to  Dr. 
Smythe  are  well  taken.  Sir,  I  especially  commend 
your  attitude  toward  your  noble  science.  The  good 
physician  is  nearer  kin  to  the  great  God  above  us 
than  any  other  man;  and,  sir,  he  shames  the  great 
God  when  he  turns  the  fair  flower  of  his  noble  call 
ing  into  the  foul  thistle  of  commercialism.  As  to 
this  fellow  Smith  who  calls  himself  Smythe — well, 
sir,  there  are  Smiths  in  Virginia  that  are  gentlemen. 
That  their  gentility  may  not  be  doubted  a  few  of 
them  sound  the  name  of  some  illustrious  family 
with  the  plebeian  name  of  Smith.  Mr.  Francis  H. 
Smith,  a  Virginian  who  had  the  misfortune  to  be 
born  in  Baltimore,  and  who  was  plain  Frank  Smith 
when  a  boy,  at  the  time  that  he  became  a  Yankee 
notified  Yankeeland  that  he  was  not  without  good 
blood  when  he  became  F.  Hopkinson  Smith.  Sir, 
he  even  named  his  boy  Berkeley." 

After  pausing  a  moment  for  oratorical  effect,  for 
all  Virginians  know  the  value  of  the  oratorical  pause, 
the  colonel  continued: 

"  The  Smiths  go  further,  sir,  much  further.  They 
spell  their  name  S-m-y-t-h,  and  S-m-y-t-h-e,  and  when 
the  daughter  of  one  of  my  former  overseers,  named 
after  her  mistress,  Sue  Daingerfield  Jones,  married  a 
Smith,  she  became  Mrs.  Daingerfield-Smythe.  The 
young  man  that  recently  came  among  us  is  Doctor 
Buckner  Custis  Smythe,  his  father,  Steve  Smith,  be 
ing  an  overseer  for  my  old  friend  Major  Custis, 


42  THE    BETRAYAL 

while  the  woman  he  married  was  a  servant  on  Gov 
ernor  Buckner's  plantation,  which  adjoined  the  es 
tate  owned  by  Major  Custis." 

With  great  difficulty  Colonel  Daingerfield  had 
controlled  himself  when  he  referred  to  Mr.  F.  Hop- 
kinson  Smith.  A  Virginian  gentleman  could  not 
speak  intemperately  in  the  presence  of  ladies;  a 
Virginian  gentleman  was  unable  temperately  to 
refer  to  the  able-bodied  young  Virginian  men  that 
did  not  care  to  draw  their  swords  in  Virginia's  de 
fence.  Father  Time  rewarded  the  Virginian  gen 
tlemen  of  expediency.  Mr.  F.  Hopkinson  Smith 
is  now  seventy-two  years  old.  For  the  last  past 
half  a  century  his  bones  probably  would  have  filled 
an  unmarked  grave  on  a  Virginian  battlefield  had 
he  fought  for  Virginia.  But  Mr.  Smith  lives — in 
Yankeeland,  where  he  is  accepted  as  a  representative 
Virginian  gentleman,  and  where  his  stories  of  Vir 
ginian  life  (a  life  in  which  he  has  had  no  part  for 
more  than  fifty  years)  are  believed  to  be  accurate 
descriptions.  This  'Virginian  gentleman"  now 
despises  the  land  of  his  adoption,  where  he  continues 
to  accumulate  money,  some  of  which  he  delights  to 
pay  out  in  tips.  But  he  never  "  talks  "  for  publi 
cation. 

In  Yankeeland  there  are  Virginians  other  than 
those  that  left  Virginia  when  the  clouds  of  war 
were  lowering  that  Virginians  do  not  love.  They 
are  the  men  that  surrendered  Virginia  to  her  rav- 
ishers  when  they  surrendered  their  swords  to  her 
invaders,  who  preferred  luxury  in  the  land  of  those 
that  recently  had  been  their  enemies  to  poverty  in 
Virginia,  who  deserted  the  widows  and  orphans 
that  Virginia's  enemies  left  in  their  wake.  In  Yan 
keeland  they  posed  as  gentlemen,  and  long  and  loud 


THE    BETRAYAL  43 

did  they  talk  about  Virginia;  but  not  a  dollar  did 
they  send  to  Virginian  widows  and  orphans.  Among 
them  were  those  that  defamed  the  land  of  their 
birth,  who  abroad  fed  upon  Virginia's  reputation 
at  the  time  that  the  carpetbagger  at  home  fed  upon 
her  vitals. 

One  Roger  A.  Pryor  was  born  in  Virginia  eighty- 
two  years  ago.  Although  he  fought  for  his  native 
land  as  a  brigadier-general,  he  left  Virginia  that  he 
might  become  a  resident  of  New  York  City.  This 
he  did  in  time  to  avoid  the  horrors  of  Reconstruc 
tion  and  the  struggle  in  which  all  Virginians  that 
were  worthy  of  their  country  engaged  that  the  mem 
bers  of  their  own  families  and  their  fallen  brothers' 
families  that  had  survived  the  war  might  live.  Gen 
eral  Pryor  was  admitted  to  the  New  York  bar  in 
1866.  So  popular  was  he  with  his  former  enemies, 
so  highly  did  they  esteem  him,  that  they  made  him  a 
justice  of  their  supreme  court.  He  retired  from  the 
bench  in  1899,  and  is  now  practising  law  in  the  land 
of  his  adoption.  "  Ah !  "  sigh  his  former  enemies, 
"  there  are  not  many  Virginians  like  Roger  A. 
Pryor !  " 

Captain  James  Spotswood  Temple,  another  lawyer 
of  the  town,  about  thirty-five  years  old,  arrived  with 
Miss  Gladys  Lancaster  while  Mr.  Harrison  and 
Miss  Dabney  and  Mr.  Dabney  and  Miss  Braxton 
were  dancing  in  a  set  of  lancers.  The  desire  to 
take  part  in  the  set  was  plainly  written  on  the  face 
of  the  fair  young  girl  as  she  looked  on  and  beat 
time  to  the  light  music  with  her  fan.  Her  pink 
gown  was  cut  well  off  the  shoulders,  and  a  black 
patch  accentuated  the  bloom  of  her  complexion. 

"  Lelia,  look;  there  is  Gladys  Lancaster,  of  Char- 


44  THE    BETRAYAL 

lottesville ! "  exclaimed  Miss  Dabney  enthusiasti 
cally. 

Indeed,  the  most  widely  heralded  beauty  in  Vir 
ginia  was  even  fairer  than  her  reputation  for  beauty 
led  one  to  expect.  Her  peasant  mother's  face  had 
been  her  fortune.  Miss  Braxton  went  forward  at 
once,  Mr.  Dabney  following  her. 

Extending  her  hand  with  masculine  cordiality,  in 
response  to  Miss  Braxton's  introduction,  Miss  Lan 
caster  spoke  in  a  ringing  voice.  She  knew  how  to 
blend  boldness  with  femininity  in  a  way  that  many 
men  found  attractive. 

"  I'm  glad  to  meet  you,  Mr.  Dabney,  awfully 
glad.  I  hear  you  made  a  bully  speech  to-day — quel 
eloquence!  Congratulations.  Shake." 

Miss  Lancaster's  knowledge  of  French  was  con 
fined  to  a  small  volume  of  quotations,  which  she 
knew  perfectly,  and  which  she  seldom  used  out  of 
their  gender.  Indeed,  Miss  Lancaster  knew  many 
things  that  she  had  never  had  to  learn.  "  I  just  feel 
it,"  she  would  say  when  some  one  would  express  his 
amazement  that  she  seemed  to  know  all  things. 
"Why  do  you  study?"  she  once  asked  a  girl  during 
the  six  months  that  she  was  at  Mrs.  Stuart's  school. 
"  Nothing  that  one  has  to  learn  is  worth  knowing. 
I  know  everything,  but  I  never  read  a  book  through, 
never — except  yellow-backs." 

Miss  Dabney  observed  the  rapt  look  of  adoration 
expressed  on  her  brother's  face  as  he  thanked  Miss 
Lancaster. 

"  Finish  this  set  with  Mr.  Dabney.  Oh,  please!  " 
said  Miss  Braxton  as  she  yielded  her  place  in  the 
set. 

Miss  Dabney  turned  to  Miss  Lancaster  as  Cap- 


THE    BETRAYAL  45 

tain  Temple  and  Miss  Braxton  left  the  ballroom 
together. 

"  Let  me  present  Mr.  Harrison." 

11  Then  it  was  you  who  woke  up  Warrenton  to 
day  !  I'm  always  interested  in  people  that  are  inde 
pendent  enough  to  do  just  as  they  please." 

"  I  thank  you." 

Mr.  Harrison  smiled.  He  had  just  heard  her 
congratulate  Mr.  Dabney  on  a  speech  that  he  had 
made  to  which  Harrison  had  replied.  Already  Dab 
ney  was  too  much  in  love  to  feel  surprise. 

Captain  Temple  led  Miss  Braxton  to  a  seat.  He, 
too,  seemed  more  serious  than  usual.  He  had  his 
problems  to  work  out,  some  of  them  within  the  next 
few  days,  and  not  the  least  of  which  concerned  the 
offer  of  marriage  that  he  proposed  to  make  to  the 
girl  by  his  side.  A  man  of  the  world,  his  sense  of 
humour  and  the  social  eminence  of  his  family  caused 
him  to  be  tolerated  in  Warrenton  society  despite  his 
impertinence  and  coarseness. 

"  It  is  an  opportune  time  for  a  ball,  Miss  Brax 
ton.  I  hope  it  will  relieve  the  tension — at  least 
dancing  makes  one  take  a  long  breath." 

"  I  hope  so." 

Miss  Braxton  answered  aimlessly,  and  Captain 
Temple  observed  that  she  was  deeply  troubled. 

'  We  are  in  the  midst  of  the  fiercest  political 
campaign  ever  fought  in  this  state,"  he  continued. 
4  There  are  at  least  two  sides  to  every  question,  you 
know,  and  the  Debtpayers  had  better  realise  without 
the  loss  of  another  day  that  there  is  more  than  one 
side  to  this  particular  question  of  Virginia's  debt." 

"  I  can  see  but  one.  There  is  the  debt;  it  must 
be  paid." 


46  THE    BETRAYAL 

"  Nevertheless,"  said  the  captain,  on  whom  none 
of  the  deep  unrest  in  her  tones  was  lost,  "  it  would 
be  well  for  all  Debtpayers  to  listen  to  the  enemy's 
arguments.  Murphy  and  the  parson  do  not  lack 
brains." 

He  paused,  then  continued,  looking  steadily  into 
her  eyes : 

1  The  speech  Harrison  made  to-day  was  unan 
swerable." 

She  returned  his  searching  look. 

'Then  you,  too,  are  a  Readjuster?" 

She  affected  surprise.  Captain  Temple  detected 
contempt  in  her  voice  and  manner.  He  could  not 
surprise  her,  as  Harrison  did,  by  joining  Murphy's 
party. 

"  No,  I  am  not  a  Readjuster;  but  I  left  the  court 
house  to-day  before  I  could  be  called  upon  to  make 
a  reply  to  that  speech.  I  was  not  prepared  to  an 
swer  Harrison's  arguments,  for  I  lay  claim  to  the 
ability  to  think,  and  I  did  not  believe,  as  other  Debt- 
payers  do,  that  a  sufficient  answer  was  made  by 
shouting,  '  Pay  the  debt,  pay  the  debt ! ' 

For  a  moment  neither  spoke;  then,  greatly  to  her 
relief,  she  saw  a  young  man  coming  toward  them. 

"  There  is  Mr.  Taliaferro,  he  is  going  to  join 
us,"  she  said,  and  later  wondered  if  her  tones  and 
manner,  intentionally  glad,  were  a  bit  too  joyous  in 
a  hostess,  even  when  a  Temple  was  the  guest. 

Richard  Tayloe  Taliaferro,  of  Richmond,  for 
merly  of  Gloucester  county, — "Dick"  Taliaferro 
all  of  his  friends  called  him, — was  the  wealthiest 
young  man  in  Virginia.  Miss  Braxton  met  him  for 
the  first  time  in  Richmond,  having  gone  to  his  studio 
with  her  father,  who  greatly  admired  the  young 


THE    BETRAYAL  47 

sculptor's  work,  and  predicted  a  brilliant  future  for 
him.  This  was  Taliaferro's  first  visit  to  Warrenton. 
He  had  come  to  see  Miss  Braxton  rather  than  to 
attend  her  ball. 

"  I  have  been  looking  for  you  for  more  than  an 
hour.  You  should  be  more  considerate  of  one  so 
eager  to  see  you." 

Undoubtedly  he  had  lost  many  years  of  his  life 
in  the  last  past  few  minutes. 

"  You  are  a  fraud  to  say  that  to  me.  You  were 
the  last  person  to  arrive.  Why  this  sudden  eager 
ness?  " 

There  was  a  playful  light  in  her  eyes. 

"  My  train  was  late,  otherwise  I  would  have  been 
the  first  here." 

"  What  an  excuse — late  to  my  birthday  ball !  " 

Mr.  Taliaferro's  look  and  voice  were  not  neces 
sarily  evidences  of  his  devotion,  for  it  is  customary 
for  the  Virginian  to  profess  to  love  every  woman 
that  he  happens  to  be  with,  and  it  is  not  unusual  for 
him  to  address  her  while  in  the  presence  of  others 
in  terms  of  rapture,  only  partly  suppressed.  But 
Captain  Temple  as  well  as  Miss  Braxton  knew  that 
Mr.  Taliaferro  had  meant  what  he  said.  There 
was  a  moment  of  silence,  broken  by  Temple,  who 
had  known  Taliaferro  slightly  for  several  years. 

"  I  suppose,  Taliaferro,  that  political  discussions 
in  Richmond  are  a  bit  heated,  as  they  are  in  War 
renton,  with  fur  flying  faster  than  the  debt?" 

*  Yes,  the  capital  is  wide  awake.  Blood  is  at 
fever  heat.  Murphy,  I  understand,  is  trying  to  win 
over  young  men  of  the  aristocracy  in  the  hope  that 
he  may  add  some  colour  of  respectability  to  his  ras 
cality — if  white  may  be  called  colour." 


48  THE    BETRAYAL 

'  There  is  an  opportunity  for  political  distinction 
for  you,"  said  Temple,  who  thought  that  Taliaferro 
had  intended  to  be  personal;  "fame  finds  one  in 
politics  sooner  than  in  art." 

"  I  have  no  political  aspirations.  If  I  had,  more 
than  Murphy's  sophistries  and  the  parson's  siren 
voice  would  be  required  to  lead  me  from  honour  and 
my  people." 

Lelia  Braxton  was  sick  at  heart.  Would  her  ball 
never  end?  And  then  she  thought  that  the  cloud 
had  just  begun  to  gather  about  John  Harrison's  life 
and  hers. 

"Who's  that  with  Miss  Braxton?"  asked  the 
Charlottesville  beauty. 

Mr.  Harrison  as  well  as  Miss  Lancaster  waited 
for  Captain  Temple's  reply.  He  had  been  thinking, 
with  jealous  misgivings,  that  it  was  unfortunate  for 
him  that  one  of  Mr.  Taliaferro's  striking  person 
ality,  tall,  and  of  knightly  bearing,  should  meet  Lelia 
Braxton  just  at  that  time. 

Captain  Temple's  answer  was  laconic;  the  excla 
mation  made  by  Miss  Lancaster  characteristic. 

"  What,  Dick  Taliaferro,  the  Richmond  sculp 
tor?" 

"  The  same." 

"The  richest  man  in  Virginia?" 

"  So  it  is  said." 
1  Then,  cher  ami,  I  must  meet  him." 

This  she  said  as  coolly  as  one  man  might  have 
expressed  a  wish  to  meet  another. 

"  Please  introduce  him  to  me  right  away." 

There  was  none  of  the  nai'vete  of  an  unsophisti 
cated  girl  in  the  way  Gladys  Lancaster  had  sought 


THE    BETRAYAL  49 

this  introduction.  She  did  not  seem  bold — not  of 
fensively  so.  Her  manner  suggested  rather  that  all 
men  should  pay  homage  to  her. 

Giving  Miss  Braxton  and  Mr.  Taliaferro  a  part 
ing  glance,  Mr.  Harrison  left  the  ballroom  with 
Miss  Dabney.  His  waning  confidence  in  himself  as 
a  lover  was  not  stimulated  by  pretty  Miss  Betty. 

"  I  hear  that  you  have  gone  over  to  Tim  Murphy, 
Mr.  Harrison." 

Some  God-given  quality  in  Betty  Dabney's  voice 
made  it  possible  for  her  to  say  a  great  deal  more 
than  others  without  giving  offence. 

"  I  am  indeed  a  Readjuster,  Miss  Dabney,  and  I 
feel  honoured  that  I  am  permitted  to  serve  under 
so  great  and  gallant  a  soldier  as  General  Murphy. 
We  propose  to  pay  Virginia's  debts  in  gold,  if  it 
takes  us  one  hundred  years,  and  shall  not  use  the 
methods  that  Debtpayers  adopt  in  meeting  their 
obligations — payment  in  words." 

"  You  must  not  say  anything  against  Debtpayers 
to  me,  Mr.  Harrison." 

"  I  did  not  mean  to  talk  politics  with  you,  Miss 
Betty.  I  beg  your  pardon." 

The  frank  look  he  gave  her  dismissed  the  sub 
ject  and  reinstated  him  in  her  favour. 

The  speech  that  he  had  made  had  caused  her 
kind  heart  to  grieve.  She  loved  Leila  Braxton, 
while  John  Harrison  had  been  her  friend  from  child 
hood.  Now  for  the  first  time  she  studied  his  fea 
tures.  His  broad  forehead  was  evidence  of  his  in 
tellectuality;  his  fine  blue  eyes  were  honest;  his  firm 
mouth  indicated  that  he  had  the  force  to  act  in 
accordance  with  his  convictions,  while  his  noble  line 
age  was  unmistakable  in  all  his  features.  Though 


50  THE    BETRAYAL 

he  was  denounced  as  a  renegade,  she  decided  that  his 
face  was  one  that  any  sensible  person  would  like — 
and  trust. 

Byrd  Dandridge  soon  came  to  look  for  Betty 
Dabney.  He  put  his  hands  on  John  Harrison's 
shoulders  in  the  old  friendly  way. 

'  The  fight  is  going  to  be  long  and  bitter,  John." 

Towering  above  them,  he  spoke  in  his  slow  man 
ner.  Miss  Dabney  thought  that  every  inch  of  his 
six-feet-three  made  for  manliness.  She  gave  him  a 
grateful  glance  as  he  continued,  the  meaning  of 
which  ultimately — the  next  day — he  worked  out. 

"I  do  not  agree  with  you  politically,  John;  I 
never  can;  but  I  am  your  friend;  I  will  always  be 
your  friend." 

All  the  evening  John  Harrison  had  kept  Lelia 
Braxton  in  sight.  He  hastened  toward  her  as  he 
saw  that  Mr.  Taliaferro  was  about  to  leave  her. 
But  Mr.  Beverley,  the  eldest  of  nine  brothers, 
who  were  all  at  the  ball,  was  the  first  to  reach  her 
side. 

"  Here  comes  John  Harrison.  He  ought  to  feel 
ashamed  of  himself  to  be  here  to-night." 

That  said,  Mr.  Beverley  went  to  look  for  his 
partner. 

Miss  Braxton  found  it  difficult  to  control  her  emo 
tions — now  grief,  now  anger.  Her  eyes,  eloquent 
with  love,  looked  into  her  lover's  face  with  mute 
sympathy  as  she  greeted  him,  and  he  was  even  more 
gentle  than  usual.  They  studiously  avoided  the  sub 
ject  that  weighed  so  heavily  on  their  hearts;  but 
were  constantly  reminded  that  the  difficulty  had  to 
be  met,  their  question  answered.  After  a  while,  as 


THE    BETRAYAL  51 

they  made  their  way  toward  the  ballroom,  they 
passed  Colonel  Daingerfield  and  Captain  Lancaster, 
who  looked  searchingly  at  her  lover.  On  the  oppo 
site  side  of  the  room  she  saw  her  father  and  Gen 
eral  Dabney  speaking  rapidly,  but  in  low  tones. 
They  could  have  but  one  opinion  in  regard  to  the 
debt,  she  knew,  so  she  felt  sure  that  her  lover  was 
the  subject  of  their  discussion.  Others  spoke  to  them 
with  unconscious  reserve.  Miss  Charlotte  Clarke, 
the  aunt  of  the  Clarke  girls,  surveyed  Harrison  crit 
ically  over  her  glasses,  then  whispered  behind  her 
fan  to  another  maiden  lady.  Miss  Clarke  had 
plans  for  Miss  Braxton.  These  she  had  unfolded 
to  her  nephew,  Clarke  Page. 

Supper  was  announced  at  midnight.  The  guests 
assembled  in  the  large  dining-room,  lighted  by  hun 
dreds  of  candles,  which  were  reflected  in  the  pol 
ished  panels  of  the  mahogany  walls.  As  Lelia 
Braxton  looked  about  to  see  if  all  were  present  it 
occurred  to  her  that  Gladys  Lancaster  was  the  only 
person  in  the  room  that  was  unaffected  by  the  po 
litical  situation.  That  young  lady  devoted  her  at 
tention  tactfully  between  Captain  Temple  and  Mr. 
Dabney.  Her  earrings,  a  trifle  longer  than  those 
worn  by  anybody  else,  dangled  coquettishly  as  she 
tossed  her  head  first  to  one  side  and  then  to  the 
other  while  speaking  to  her  companions.  Although 
Mr.  Dabney  had  taken  Miss  Boiling  in  to  supper, 
Miss  Lancaster  had  appropriated  him  as  well  as  her 
own  partner.  Now  she  looked  at  Captain  Temple 
coyly,  her  pretty  face,  quite  close  to  his,  turned  up 
slightly,  as  if  she  expected  a  kiss. 

"  One  would  think  that   Murphy  was  the  only 


52  THE    BETRAYAL 

man  in  Virginia — Murphy  the  bete  noire.  For  my 
part,  I  still  have  a  bit  of  interest  in  others." 

She  laughed  significantly,  dimpling  her  rosy 
cheek  roguishly  the  while. 

"  Taliaferro,  for  instance?" 

"  Yes,  and  Temple  and  Harrison — and  a  few 
others.  Toujours  avec  plusicurs  cordes  a  votre  arc. 
Just  now  I'm  particularly  interested  in  you.  I'd  like 
to  live  in  Warrenton." 

Temple's  suggestion  had  been  made  mischiev 
ously.  There  was  a  wager  between  them,  not  alto 
gether  as  a  joke,  that  she  would  be  unable  to  make 
a  conquest  of  Taliaferro  that  night.  She  always  ac 
cepted  a  challenge.  For  a  moment  she  paused  to 
look  intently  at  Harrison,  for  she  had  seen  that  every 
few  minutes  he  had  gazed  fixedly  at  Miss  Braxton. 
The  captain  claimed  her  attention. 

"Then  you  could  forgive  his  being  a  Readjuster? 
I  rather  doubt  if  Miss  Braxton  will  forgive  him." 

"  Yes,  he  has  my  forgiveness.  A  girl  takes  no 
part  in  politics,  so  why  should  she  choose  a  husband 
along  party  lines?  " 

Gary  Dabney's  malady  had  progressed  so  far  that 
he  now  thought  Gladys  Lancaster  the  most  charm 
ing  young  woman  that  he  had  ever  met. 

Later,  as  the  ladies  were  about  to  withdraw,  Talia 
ferro  was  crossing  the  room  toward  Lelia  Braxton 
when  Gladys  Lancaster  called  to  him,  pitching  her 
voice  a  great  deal  too  high. 

"  Come  here  a  moment,  Mr.  Taliaferro,  I've 
something  to  tell  you." 

"  I  am  all  attention,"  warned  Temple  in  an  under 
tone. 

"  Shut  up,  he'll  hear  you." 


THE    BETRAYAL  53 

She  held  Taliaferro  with  her  raillery  for  a  few 
minutes,  then  he  went  to  Miss  Braxton,  who  left  the 
room  with  him.  Miss  Lancaster  drew  a  quick 
breath  of  amused  surprise,  then  observed  Captain 
Temple's  cynical  smile. 

"Well?" 

"  You  did  not  catch  him  after  all." 

"You  go  to  the  devil  I  That's  what  I  said — 
allez  au  diablef" 

She  laughed  merrily  as  she  passed  out  with  Dab- 
ney,  nor  was  her  merriment  less  when  she  saw  the 
astonishment  that  was  written  on  the  faces  of  Judge 
Braxton  and  Mrs.  Daingerfield,  who  had  overheard 
her  last  exclamation. 

"  Mr.  Braxton,"  said  Mrs.  Daingerfield  as  she 
perceptibly  shuddered,  "  times  have  changed  since 
we  were  young." 

"  The  child  is  not  half  so  bad  as  she  would  have 
you  believe.  However,  I  quite  agree  with  you  that 
sad  changes  have  occurred  in  recent  years.  I  do  not 
see  how  Lancaster  could  have  permitted  Mrs.  Lan 
caster  to  name  his  daughter  Gladys." 

"  Why,  Mr.  Braxton,  daughters  of  overseers 
marrying  into  the  gentry  have  always  named  their 
children  after  characters  in  romances — Maybelle, 
Genevieve,  Reginald,  Mortimer,  and  the  like.  As 
to  Gladys,  no  doubt  she  is  a  good  girl ;  but  of  course 
her  mother  did  not  know  how  to  guide  her.  I  re 
member  that  when  she  was  a  child,  the  only  time 
that  I  ever  was  in  Captain  Lancaster's  home,  her 
mother  reproved  her.  Stamping  her  little  foot,  she 
retorted,  '  How  dare  a  Brown  tell  a  Lancaster  how 
to  behave !  '  Then,  drawing  herself  up  proudly,  she 


54  THE    BETRAYAL 

walked  from  the  room  with  grace  that  was  almost 
stately." 

The  gentlemen  lingered  in  the  dining-room  to  en 
joy  their  tobacco  and  liqueurs  after  the  ladies  had 
withdrawn. 

Captain  Lancaster  precipitated  the  storm  that  for 
some  time  had  been  lowering. 

"  What  do  you  think  of  the  political  situation, 
gentlemen?  " 

For  a  while  no  one  spoke;  then  Judge  Braxton 
slowly  replied,  selecting  his  words  with  care: 

"  I  think  that  the  outlook  is  gloomy.  The  elec 
tion  next  fall  will  be  the  gravest  crisis  in  Virginia's 
history.  Then  shall  be  decided  whether  the  best 
element  shall  continue  to  control  affairs  of  state  or 
whether  Virginia  shall  be  delivered  over  to  mobs  of 
ignorant  and  vicious  creatures." 

"  I  repeat  the  opinion  that  I  publicly  expressed 
yesterday,"  said  Colonel  Daingerfield;  "the  spirit 
that  prompted  the  French  Revolution  is  at  the  base 
of  this  movement.  The  dangers  that  threatened 
France  threaten  Virginia." 

"  Pardon  me,  gentlemen,"  John  Harrison  inter 
posed;  "  your  views  are  not  borne  out  by  facts.  The 
new  party  is  the  result  of  the  incompetency  of  those 
that  now  control  our  government.  While  I  have 
never  met  General  Murphy,  I  am  sure  that  he  is 
worthy  of  confidence,  and  I,  for  one,  proudly  serve 
under  him  in  this  crisis."  He  paused;  then,  looking 
at  Colonel  Daingerfield,  he  continued:  "I  am  as 
glad  to  serve  under  him  now  as  you  were  when  you 
gave  your  services  to  Virginia  and  entered  his  com 
mand  when  he  was  a  brave  Confederate  general." 


THE    BETRAYAL  55 

The  words  brought  the  old  warrior  to  his  feet. 

"  Sir,  a  thief  may  be  brave.  Murphy's  bravery  as 
a  soldier  can  not  be  pleaded  by  his  friends  in  extenu 
ation  of  Murphy  the  rogue." 

Then,  drawing  himself  up,  the  colonel  assumed 
the  attitude  of  the  statesman  of  his  school  when 
about  to  address  the  Senate,  and  spoke  to  all  the 
gentlemen  present. 

"  There  was  a  time  in  Virginia  when  every  man 
was  an  honest  man,  no  matter  what  his  class.  Sirs, 
that  time  passed  with  our  late  war.  I  shall  not 
enter  upon  a  discussion  of  Murphy's  bravery  at  this 
time.  Marat  was  a  brave  man,  his  conceptions  gi 
gantic;  yet,  sirs,  always  was  that  Frenchman  con 
sistent  in  his  guilt.  I  proclaim  to  the  world, — aye, 
in  the  forum  I  shall  proclaim, — Timothy  Murphy, 
the  son  of  a  washerwoman,  was  born  a  thief,  and  a 
thief  he  will  die." 

John  Harrison  was  on  his  feet  before  the  colonel 
had  finished  speaking. 

"You  are  wrong,  Colonel  Daingerfield;  you  are 
prejudiced  against  General  Murphy — I  believe  that 
you  are  prejudiced  against  all  Readjusters." 

"  They  are  a  set  of  unprincipled  scoundrels,  sir!  " 

The  colonel's  eyes  gleamed.  He  had  not  resumed 
his  seat.  Harrison  determined  to  govern  his  tem 
per,  which  had  been  constantly  taxed  since  noon. 

"  Colonel  Daingerfield,  I  believe  that  the  Read 
justers  are  sincere  in  their  wish  to  effect  a  settlement 
of  the  debt  under  plans  that  will  be  fair,  workable, 
and  wholly  honourable  to  Virginia." 

'  There  is  but  one  way  to  pay  a  debt — pay  it !  " 
thundered  the  colonel,  not  attempting  to  conceal  his 
disgust. 


56  THE    .BETRAYAL 

The  young  leader  of  the  Debtpayers  now  took 
part  in  the  discussion,  but  did  not  rise.  His  voice 
was  well  modulated  as  he  spoke  to  Harrison  in  the 
affectionate  tones  of  an  elder  brother. 

'The  Readjusters  are  to  be  congratulated  if  they 
succeed  in  drawing  a  Harrison  into  their  camp — 
Judge  John  Randolph  Harrison's  son,  bearing  his 
father's  full  name.  They  have  set  a  trap  for  you. 
Parson  Jones  did  not  hesitate  to  take  half-truths  for 
use  in  his  pamphlet  '  Debts  and  Taxes,'  and  he  dis 
torted  those  half-truths  until  he  had  built  up  a  struc 
ture  that  can  never  be  tolerated  by  those  that  love 
Virginia.  Harrison,  Parson  Jones  may  be  honest,  as 
far  as  he  knows  honesty,  but  Murphy  is  a  dangerous 
man.  Already  he  is  in  control  of  the  Readjusters, 
and  the  parson  will  have  little  voice  in  the  manage 
ment  of  your  party.  A  great  leader,  quite  as  great  a 
soldier  in  politics  as  in  war,  Murphy  fooled  you 
when  he  led  you  to  think  that  he  intends  to  pay  one 
cent  of  Virginia's  debt.  If  our  country's  honour  is 
not  safe  when  entrusted  to  men  like  Judge  Braxton, 
Colonel  Daingerfield,  Captain  Lancaster,  Mr.  Car 
ter,  my  father,  and  the  aristocracy  that  has  conserved 
her  honour  for  nearly  three  hundred  years,  would 
her  honour  be  more  secure  if  placed  for  safe  keeping 
with  Parson  Jones  and  Tim  Murphy  and  the  no 
torious  rascals  that  constitute  the  Readjuster 
party?" 

"  Dabney,  I  believe  that  the  Readjusters  occupy  a 
position  between  those  that  recognise  no  moral  obli 
gation  and  the  Debtpayers  that  are  determined  to 
pay  the  last  dollar  of  the  debt  at  once — in  words, 
mere  words.  Virginia  is  bankrupt.  If  she  has  to 
reestablish  her  credit  it  must  be  through  capable 


THE    BETRAYAL  57 

government — honest,  but  capable.  Murphy,  a  Re- 
adjuster, — and,  I  believe,  an  honest  man  as  well, — is 
the  only  person  whose  honesty  has  gone  so  far  as  to 
enable  him  to  devise  a  feasible  plan  for  the  payment 
of  our  creditors.  When — and  how — do  you  pro 
pose  to  pay  the  debt?" 

"Nonsense,  I  say;  nonsense!"  exclaimed  Colonel 
Daingerfield,  not  giving  young  Dabney  time  to  an 
swer.  "  Murphy's  talk  of  readjustment  is  nothing 
more  than  a  trickster's  name  for  repudiation !  "  The 
colonel  brought  his  fist  down  on  the  table. 

"  If  the  aristocracy  of  Virginia  does  not  stand 
firmly  together,  my  boy,"  said  Judge  Braxton,  "  we 
will  be  ruined,  irretrievably  ruined.  A  country's 
credit  once  lost  can  never  be  reestablished." 

"  Sir,"  said  the  young  man,  his  voice  not  faltering, 
as  he  looked  at  the  father  of  the  woman  that  he 
loved,  u  as  I  have  said,  General  Murphy  and  Mr. 
Jones  seem  to  have  Virginia's  honour  in  their  keep 
ing.  The  government  of  the  aristocracy  permitted 
a  debt  of  forty-seven  million  dollars  to  accumulate, 
and  the  peasant  Murphy  and  the  yeoman  Jones 
come  to  the  rescue,  and  offer  to  repay  the  money  that 
has  been  spent  by  the  gentry." 

"  Why,  you  damned  scoundrel,  sir !  " 

Again  Colonel  Daingerfield  brought  his  fist  down 
on  the  table,  glared  at  Harrison,  and  would  so  far 
have  forgotten  the  laws  of  hospitality  as  to  strike 
him  had  not  the  venerable  physician,  Mr.  Car 
ter,  held  up  his  hand  authoritatively,  commanding 
peace. 

"  Daingerfield,  Dabney,  Braxton,  Lancaster, 
John,  Cary — all:  I  had  passed  my  youth  when  the 
oldest  among  you  was  a  lad  in  school.  John,  never 


58  THE    BETRAYAL 

until  this  day  has  a  young  Virginian  addressed  his 
elders  as  you  have  just  spoken.  Daingerfield,  you 
forget  that  mistakes  are  the  penalties  of  youth.  I 
am  indeed  amazed.  Virginians  have  been  accus 
tomed  to  discuss  affairs  of  state  as  gentlemen,  not 
after  the  manner  of  the  rabble." 

A  few  minutes  of  silence,  then  young  Dabney  re 
sumed. 

"  Murphy  has  the  advantage  of  us  in  this,  he  ad 
vocates  a  plan  for  a  readjustment  of  the  debt  while 
the  Debtpayers,  as  you  said  this  morning  and  have 
repeated  here,  so  far  have  offered  nothing  but  words 
in  settlement;  but  those  words,  Harrison,  were  hon 
est  words,  worthy  of  Virginia :  '  The  only  way  to 
settle  a  debt  is  to  pay  it,'  not  to  pay  it  under  an  ar 
rangement  dictated  by  Virginia  to  her  creditors,  but 
to  pay  it  as  fast  as  possible,  giving  all  that  we  have 
for  that  purpose." 

"  Good  boy,  good  boy!  "  exclaimed  Captain  Lan 
caster,  and  all  except  Temple  joined  in  the  applause 
that  followed. 

"What,  gentlemen,  will  be  the  outcome?"  Gen 
eral  Dabney  asked. 

"  By  gad,  sir,"  replied  Captain  Lancaster,  "  Mur 
phy  will  win!  Never  mind,  Gary,  keep  your  seat; 
you  know  that  he  will  be  successful.  He  is  sure  of 
the  negroes  to  a  man,  and  can  carry  all  the  po'  whites 
by  promises  of  offices  and  by  telling  them  that  the 
Debtpayers  will  cheat  them  out  of  their  free 
schools." 

"  His  following  numerically  is  much  stronger  than 
ours,  Lancaster,  we  all  must  admit,"  said  Judge 
Braxton;  "but  we  will  win,  for  Virginians,  when 
tested,  will  maintain  Virginia's  integrity — or  die. 


THE    BETRAYAL  59 

We  should  conduct  an  educational  campaign.  Do 
you  agree  with  me,  our  worthy  young  leader?" 

"  Judge,"  replied  Dabney,  "  there  is  no  other  way. 
Government  can  not  be  conducted  by  any  other 
class  than  the  aristocracy,  no  matter  what  the  coun 
try,  no  matter  what  the  period.  Now  and  then  the 
misdirected  voice  of  the  people  is  heard,  and  govern 
ment  by  the  honest  and  the  intelligent  is  exchanged 
for  that  of  the  ignorant  and  the  vicious.  Many 
hold  that  a  movement  like  this  can  never  be  checked, 
that  it  has  to  run  its  course,  that  every  popular  up 
rising,  no  matter  how  mischievous,  no  matter  how 
absurd,  always  is  successful,  at  least  for  a  little 
while.  But  I  believe  you  are  right,  sir;  Vir 
ginians  are  not  yet  ready  to  desert  Virginia. 
After  much  thought,  and  after  conferring  with 
my  elders, — you  gentlemen  among  them,  whose 
judgment  I  trust  more  than  I  do  my  own, — I  feel 
satisfied  that  our  engines  of  war  must  be  those  of 
peace.  We  must  endeavour  to  restore  tranquillity, 
that  deep  contentment  of  the  classes  that  existed  for 
so  many  generations,  and  then  we  shall  go  down  to 
defeat  in  glory,  if  defeated,  while  in  time  Murphy's 
success  will  be  turned  into  our  victory." 

No  longer  able  to  tolerate  the  situation  in  which 
he  had  placed  himself,  John  Harrison  rose. 

"  Gentlemen,  if  you  will  excuse  me,  I  will  return 
to  the  ladies.  Your  remarks  may  not  be  intended  to 
apply  to  me  personally,  but  I  am  one  of  those  that 
you  condemn.  I  shall  continue  to  fight  for  Virginia's 
honour  in  accordance  with  my  convictions." 

He  left  the  room.  After  a  while  the  colonel  broke 
the  silence. 

"  If  a  man  wants  to  be  a  damned  fool,  we  will 


60  THE    BETRAYAL 

have  to  let  him  be  one.  Oh,  ignorance  of  youth! 
each  rising  star  is  its  guide,  each  falling  star  the 
object  of  its  scorn!  'O  Absalom,  my  son,  my 
son!'" 

"  He  is  far  from  being  a  fool — that's  the  pity  of 
it,"  said  young  Dabney,  coming  to  his  friend's  de 
fence.  "If  he  were  a  fool  his  value  to  Murphy 
would  not  be  so  great." 

"  Poor  boy,  poor  boy!  "  sighed  the  judge. 

'  Yet,  he  held  his  own  in  the  controversy." 

Captain  Temple  had  thought  aloud. 

The  colonel  glared  at  him  through  his  glasses, 
then  started  as  he  searched  his  face. 

'  Young  man,  all  should  be  fairly  warned  that  co 
operation  with  Murphy  means  social  ostracism.  A 
Virginian  without  honour  shall  never  associate  with 
gentlemen." 

The  questions:  Am  I  a  Readjuster?  Am  I  a 
Debtpayer?  were  demanding  an  answer  of  Temple. 
The  colonel  had  approached  unpleasantly  close  to 
the  captain's  innermost  thoughts.  In  foreseeing  the 
fall  of  a  dynasty,  the  wreck  of  an  aristocracy,  Tem 
ple  also  foresaw  that  he  could  be  a  leader  in  the  new 
regime.  He  was  not  sure  that  the  gentry  would 
ever  forgive  him,  so  he  had  not  yet  decided  the 
questions  that  were  ringing  in  his  ears.  Again,  he 
felt  quite  sure  that  he  could  never  win  Lelia  Brax- 
ton  by  mere  fame;  besides,  his  fame  would  be 
infamy — for  a  while,  at  least. 

The  unknown  force  that  disseminates  news  with 
out  the  aid  of  a  word  spoken  or  written  caused  the 
political  discussion  that  had  been  held  over  the  cigars 
to  be  felt  throughout  the  house.  Through  the  op- 


THE    BETRAYAL  61 

eration  of  the  same  law  it  was  generally  thought  that 
John  Harrison  would  go  on  the  hustings  as  an  ad 
vocate  of  the  Readjuster  party. 

Never  was  a  Virginian  man  or  woman  too  old  for 
romance. 

From  the  open  windows  of  the  conservatory,  as 
Mr.  Carter  and  Miss  Braxton  strolled  out  to  the 
grotto  after  supper,  came  the  lively  national  song  of 
Virginia : 

"  Den  carry  me  back  to  old  Virginny, 

To  old  Virginny's  shore, 
Oh,  carry  me  back  to  old  Virginny, 
To  old  Virginny's  shore." 

"Have  you  forgiven  me,  my  child?  My  words 
about  John  Harrison  were  most  intemperate." 

"Oh,  Mr.  Carter,  I  was  not  angry;  but,  oh,  sir, 
oh,  John  does  not  mean  to  be  wrong!  He  thinks 
that  what  he  does  is  for  the  honour  of  Virginia,  that 
he  is  fighting  for  the  right." 

"  He  is  young,  my  child." 

"Yes,  sir;  but  every  Virginian  should  know  the 
path  of  honour.  John  does  not  see  the  right." 

The  old  man  gently  stroked  her  hair. 

"Let  us  talk  about  the  moon,  godpapa?" 

"  You  are  right,  quite  right,  my  dear;  quite  right. 
And  what  a  beautiful  moon!  As  I  look  from  your 
eyes  to  her  smiling,  kindly  face,  I  recall  the  words 
of  Horace  as  he  described  just  such  a  night  as  this — 

" '  Solvitur   acris   hiemps   grata  vice  veris   et   Favoni, 

Trahuntque  siccas   machinae  cerinas, 
Ac  neque  iam  stabulis  gaudet  pecus  aut  arator  igni, 
Nee  prata  canis  albicant  pruinis. 


62  THE     BETRAYAL 

"  '  lam  Cytherea  chores  ducit  Venus  imminente  luna, 

lunctaeque   Nymphis   Gratis   decentes 
Alterno  terrain  quatiunt  pede,  durn  graves  Cyclopurn 
Volcanus  ardens  urit  officinas.'  " 

"  I  claim  my  dance,  Miss  Lelia." 

She  took  Tom  Tazewell's  arm.  Mr.  Carter  said 
that  he  would  stay  out  a  bit  longer  with  his  friend 
the  moon. 

As  Mr.  Harrison  danced  the  last  waltz  with  Miss 
Braxton  he  noticed  how  cold  her  hand  was  and  how 
it  trembled  in  his. 

She  was  the  first  to  speak. 

"  I  wish  to  see  you." 

"Now,  or  later?" 

"  Now." 

Excitement  shone  in  her  eyes.  The  pride  of  gen 
erations  of  Braxtons  was  in  her  face  and  bearing. 
She  had  thought  that  the  path  of  honour  was  broad 
enough  and  plain  enough  to  be  seen  by  every  man. 

Harrison  drew  a  wrap  around  her  shoulders  as 
they  went  out  into  the  moonlight.  The  whippoor- 
wills  were  still  calling  to  their  mates,  their  plaintive 
notes  mingling  with  the  sound  of  the  running  stream 
in  the  grotto. 

"  There  should  be  no  misunderstanding  between 
us,  Lelia.  You  are  my  dear,  noble-hearted  girl.  I 
love  you  more  than  I  can  say — more  than  you  can 
ever  know." 

"  I  love  you,  John — at  least  I  did  love  you." 

"  Let  me  talk  to  you,  Lelia,  fully,  freely,  frankly, 
as  a  man  should  talk  to  the  woman  that  he  loves, 
who  has  promised  to  be  his  wife?  " 

"  No;  it  would  be  useless." 


THE    BETRAYAL  63 

He  was  silent  for  a  moment. 

"  If  you  love  me — if  you  ever  loved  me — your 
faith  in  me  would  be  second  only  to  your  faith  in 
God.  You  would  know  that  I  am  a  man  of  honour." 

"  I  had  that  faith  in  you  .  .  .  once  .  .  . 
now — I  do  not  know.  ...  I  loved  you  once  with 
all  the  heart  that  a  woman  has  to  give.  You  knew 
that  it  was  yours — my  heart.  But  .  .  .  Your 
views  are  not  those  that  should  be  held  by  a  man  of 
honour." 

'You  have  not  listened  to  me;  yet  you  dare  to 
charge  me  with  dishonour." 

"  I  do  not  mean  to  charge  you  with  dishonour.  I 
believe  in  your  nobility.  I  can  not  doubt  that  you 
follow  the  light  as  you  see  it.  But  I  can  not,  I  will 
not — no,  /  will  not — let  the  man  that  I  love  con 
vince  me  that  it  is  right  to  bring  dishonour  upon  Vir 
ginia,  that  it  is  right  for  him  to  take  a  position 
unworthy  of  all  the  great  good  that  is  in  him,  that 
is  unworthy  of  his  people  and  mine." 

"  But  who  is  to  decide  this  question  of  honour? 
Who?  Am  I  not  entitled  to  my  opinions  as  well  as 
the  Debtpayers  are  to  theirs?  " 

"  I  am  to  decide." 

''  I  have  the  right  to  expect  you  to  weigh  my  opin 
ions  with  those  of  others — the  opinions  of  the  man 
that  you  love — or  used  to  love." 

"  I  will  never  marry  you  so  long  as  you  lead 
where  I  can  not  follow." 

"  Then  good-night." 

"And  good-bye." 


CHAPTER   TWO 

A  FEW  days  after  the  Morven  ball  General 
Timothy  Murphy  sat  alone  in  his  office 
in  the  quaint  old  city  of  Petersburg,  a 
cynical  smile  on  his  repulsive  face.  The  office,  a 
large  room,  was  furnished  with  an  immense  desk, 
the  flat  top  of  which  was  covered  with  green  cloth;  a 
revolving  desk-chair;  a  cheap  split-bottom  chair  of 
the  kind  that  is  used  in  Virginia  kitchens  to  this  day; 
a  spittoon,  and  nothing  more.  The  brick  walls, 
which  recently  had  been  whitewashed,  were  bare, 
with  the  exception  of  a  highly-coloured  chromo  that 
represented  Bonaparte  in  Egypt  gazing  at  the 
Sphinx.  This  room,  which  took  up  the  entire  third 
floor  of  a  crumbling  old  building,  had  only  one 
door,  which  opened  immediately  at  the  head  of  the 
last  flight  of  rickety  stairs.  The  first  floor  of  the 
ruin,  which  was  paved  with  clay,  was  used  as  a 
saloon,  a  disorderly  place,  and  the  second  floor  was 
used  by  the  proprietor  as  a  storage  room.  The 
keeper  of  the  saloon  was  no  worse  than  his  neigh 
bours,  his  distinguished  tenant  excepted. 

One  saw  at  a  glance  that  General  Murphy  was  a 
cruel  man,  unscrupulous  and  cunning.  On  his  face 
was  written  indomitable  will,  tireless  energy,  and  all 
those  forces  that  had  enabled  him  to  rise  from  er 
rand  boy  in  his  immigrant  father's  cross-roads  store 
and  groggery  to  distinguished  and  successful  major- 
general  in  the  Confederate  army.  Not  nearly  so  tall 
as  the  man  of  average  height,  wiry,  nervous,  his  in- 

64 


THE    BETRAYAL  65 

significant  features  as  small  as  those  of  a  child,  with 
round  grey  eyes  that  were  never  still,  he  was  in  his 
physical  and  mental  prime,  and,  notwithstanding  the 
prematurely  grey  beard  that  swept  to  his  waist, 
not  patriarchal  in  appearance,  but  the  embodiment 
of  youth.  He  seemed  to  be  a  thing  rather  than  a 
human  being,  yet  an  intangible  thing,  said  even  those 
that  knew  him  best.  Although  his  personality  was 
revoltingly  offensive,  he  was  magnetic  to  an  extraor 
dinary  degree,  and  seldom  failed  to  dominate  those 
that  were  brought  within  the  sphere  of  his  influence. 

This  man,  who  counted  every  human  creature  his 
enemy,  knowing  that  no  detail  of  an  undertaking  is 
ever,  insignificant,  not  only  never  permitted  his  com 
prehensive  mind  to  relinquish  its  hold  on  any  detail 
of  his  own  enterprises,  but  never  allowed  the  details 
of  the  affairs  of  others  that  might  affect  him  to  get 
beyond  his  extraordinary  mental  grasp.  That  an 
enemy  never  becomes  a  friend,  that  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  forgiveness,  Murphy  knew  full  well;  hence 
he  always  treated  the  man  that  should  be  his  enemy 
as  an  enemy,  forced  him  to  uncover,  then 
dealt  him  the  first  blow.  He  knew  the  great  value 
of  initiative  in  civil  as  well  as  in  military  conflicts. 

His  few  writings  were  unsigned  letters  for  the 
greater  part,  and  those  were  brief,  usually  written 
on  scraps  of  paper,  and  so  written  that  they  were 
returned  to  him,  when  that  could  be  accomplished. 
"  Please  write  your  reply  on  the  back  of  this  sheet," 
was  the  usual  postcript  to  his  seemingly  unimpor 
tant  notes.  He  would  oblige  one  of  his  agents  to 
travel  hundreds  of  miles  sooner  than  write  what 
appeared  to  be  unimportant  instructions,  for  he  knew 
that  self-revealment  is  in  all  writing.  Operating  his 


66  THE    BETRAYAL 

private  and  public  affairs  through  others,  and  never 
long  through  any  one  person,  Murphy  the  man  could 
not  be  known  even  by  his  works.  Yet  his  force  was 
felt  throughout  Virginia.  Intangible,  elusive,  he 
was  like  some  dark  spirit  in  the  bowels  of  hell,  no 
where  present,  yet  always  a  vital  part  of  mortals, 
mocking  them  while  compelling  them  to  do  his  bid 
ding.  He  had  no  friends.  His  acquaintances  never 
tried  to  penetrate  the  ever-changing  surface  that  en 
cased  him,  but  left  his  presence  as  soon  as  they 
could. 

The  witticisms  of  others,  particularly  when  di 
rected  against  himself,  he  used  as  a  sauce  for  his 
own  wit,  but  shared  his  ultimate  triumph  over  his  ad 
versaries  with  no  one.  Although  he  was  not  vain 
glorious,  and  his  assumed  humility  seemed  to  be 
modesty  herself,  his  sole  joy  was  the  consciousness 
of  his  own  great  mentality,  and 

Wait!  There  was  one  other  pleasure.  He  took 
great  delight  in  every  growing  plant.  No  other 
love  did  he  have;  no  other  mistress  did  he  woo. 
Although  he  had  married,  and  was  considered  an 
ideal  husband  and  father  by  his  neighbours,  yet  the 
growing  plant,  from  the  tender  blade  of  grass  to  a 
full-blown  rose,  was  his  only  love.  No  soft  light 
ever  relieved  the  cruel  glitter  of  his  small  round 
eyes;  yet  his  face  would  seem  to  be  somewhat  hu 
man  as  he  would  look  upon  his  love.  Now  as  he 
sat  in  his  office  every  few  minutes  his  eyes  would 
leave  the  Whig  to  seek  the  flowers  that  filled  his 
white  china  water  pitcher — the  flowers  that  he  had 
gathered  in  his  garden  while  they  were  still  wet  with 
dew. 

One    could    scarcely    believe    that    Murphy    ever 


THE    BETRAYAL  67 

really  loved  any  human  being  or  brute  animal. 
He  certainly  had  no  love  for  Murphy,  but  regarded 
himself  as  a  mere  puppet  on  the  stage  of  life,  and 
always  kept  before  himself  the  fact  that  the  curtain 
would  soon  be  let  down.  He  liked  the  stage,  but 
the  puppet — was  nothing  more  than  a  puppet. 

Nevertheless  this  remarkable  creature  was  made 
up  of  two  elements,  hatred  and  ambition — hatred 
directed  principally  against  the  aristocracy,  although 
the  yeomanry  and  the  peasantry  had  a  large  share; 
and  ambition,  which  was  for  himself  alone.  The 
stage  would  be  a  large  one,  no  matter  how  short 
the  performance,  and  the  puppet  should  be  the  king 
of  puppets. 

His  hatred  of  the  aristocracy  was  tempered  by 
his  admiration  of  the  individuals  that  composed 
that  class  as  well  as  of  the  aristocracy  as  a  whole; 
for,  always  honest  with  himself,  he  knew  that  he 
was  jealous  of  the  gentry,  and  also  he  knew  that  he 
would  have  loved  the  chief  object  of  his  hatred  had 
he  been  admitted  to  the  sacred  hearth — had  he  the 
gift  of  love,  which  he  doubted.  He  even  admitted 
to  himself  that  he  was  not  fit  to  enter  the  society  that 
he  coveted,  that  a  gentleman  could  not  be  made  in 
one  generation.  Then  he  would  consider  his 
equipment  as  he  would  that  of  an  army,  actually  go 
ing  so  far  as  to  ask  himself  the  question,  Were  I  to 
enter  the  aristocracy  would  I  not  be  merely  an  ass 
masquerading  in  a  lion's  skin? 

Although  he  despised  yeomen  and  peasants  as 
much  as  he  hated  them,  and  was  brave  enough  to 
admit  to  himself  that  he  was  a  peasant,  he  refused 
to  remain  in  the  class  in  which  he  was  born.  Know 
ing  the  values  of  his  resourceful  mind,  he  did  not 


68  THE    BETRAYAL 

intend  to  hold  a  subordinate  place  in  the  affairs  of 
men.  Like  the  great  Corsican,  who  said  that  he 
would  be  an  ancestor,  Murphy  too  would  be  the 
founder  of  a  family,  a  great  family;  not  that  he 
cared  for  the  posterity  that  would  bear  his  name, 
but  in  climbing  the  social  ladder  to  the  topmost  rung 
he  would  find  the  joy  of  living.  Daily  he  would 
gaze  upon  the  slain  bodies  of  his  victims  piled  high 
beneath  his  ladder.  He  would  humble  the  pride  of 
those  that  were  justly  proud  with  the  pride  of 
princes,  the  pride  of  real  majesty,  and  in  the  place 
of  Virginia  there  would  be  a  single  man:  a  peasant 
now,  a  gentleman  then,  a  gentleman  of  his  own 
making,  a  king  of  his  own  creation — one  Timothy 
Murphy. 

As  to  the  cattle  that  would  help  him  to  work  out 
his  ambition,  why,  they  were  but  cattle.  None 
save  a  fool  could  hold  that  government  should  be 
administered  by  yeomen  and  peasants.  There 
must  be  an  aristocracy;  but  why  not  the  Murphy 
aristocracy?  Why  not?  Because  he  knew  that 
Murphy  the  aristocrat  would  indeed  be  Murphy  the 
ass.  He  had  heard  of  the  divinity  that  doth  hedge 
a  king.  That  same  divinity,  he  thought,  raised  an 
inseparable  barrier  between  men  that  were  made  of 
different  clay. 

And  he  knew  of  the  tide  that  is  in  the  affairs  of 
men.  Had  he  not  already  fully  availed  himself  of 
one  great  opportunity?  Had  he  not  reached  the 
flood  tide  of  success?  Had  he  not  entered  the  mili 
tary  service  of  Virginia,  and  through  sheer  work  and 
genius,  overcoming  the  handicap  laid  down  by  so 
ciety,  in  less  than  four  years  caused  the  names  Mur 
phy  and  Crater  to  be  sounded  together  throughout 


THE    BETRAYAL  69 

the  civilised  world?  And  then — he  had  passed  out 
with  the  tide.  Again  he  would  succeed,  and  success 
would  spell  Murphy.  Sacred  precincts  of  the  aris 
tocracy?  Once  more  that  voice.  Bah!  bah!  bah! 
Not  only  would  he  be  an  aristocracy,  he  would  be  a 
whole  people. 

Now  was  the  accepted  time.  The  yeomanry  and 
the  peasantry,  fretful,  trained  by  carpetbaggers  for 
fourteen  years,  were  ready  to  rise  against  the  aris 
tocracy.  They  needed  money.  They  should  find  it 
in  existing  public  offices  and  in  the  thousands  of  po 
sitions  that  he  would  make  for  them  in  the  public 
service.  They  wished  to  be  gentlemen.  He  would 
found  for  them  an  aristocracy  of  their  own,  and 
they  would  never  be  able  to  distinguish  between 
their  gentry  and  that  of  the  old  regime. 

Two  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  votes  could  be 
cast  legally  in  the  fall  elections,  including  the  negro 
vote,  one  hundred  and  ten  thousand  strong.  Murphy 
saw  that  he  could  form  a  single  party  out  of  those 
yeomen  and  peasants  that  wished  to  repudiate  the 
debt,  and  the  negroes  who  would  vote  for  any  party 
that  would  promise  social  equality,  public  office,  or 
money  in  payment  of  votes.  He  would  amalgamate 
the  Republican  and  Readjuster  parties,  composed  of 
yeomen,  peasants,  and  negroes,  into  a  single  polit 
ical  body,  to  be  known  in  time  as  the  Murphy 
party. 

Among  General  Murphy's  many  plans  was  one 
by  which  he  could  purchase  for  himself  a  large  part 
of  the  bonds  that  represented  the  debt  of  forty-seven 
millions  at  one-tenth  their  face  value,  later  forcing 
those  bonds  to  par,  all  under  the  mantle  of  perfect 
legality.  He  would  reserve  for  himself  an  ample 


70  THE    BETRAYAL 

fortune.     Then  he  would  provide  limitless  sinews  of 
war  for  his  party. 

As  Murphy  sat  at  his  desk  that  morning  in  April 
the  Readjuster  party  was  barely  two  months  old. 
He  was  reading  an  editorial  that  he  had  ordered 
written,  which  had  been  published  in  the  Richmond 
Whig,  a  newspaper  that  he  owned,  and  the  policy  of 
which  he  directed  in  his  own  interest,  private  and 
political,  when  he  heard  the  hesitating  footsteps  of 
somebody  coming  up  the  creaking  old  stairs. 
Then  one  of  his  henchmen  slouched  in,  following  a 
feeble  knock,  which  had  failed  to  attract  the  gen 
eral's  attention. 

"  Mornin',  Gen'I." 

Receiving  no  reply  to  the  slovenly  drawl,  the  visi 
tor  sat  down  in  the  split-bottom  chair,  which  was  at 
least  ten  feet  from  Murphy,  in  its  usual  position. 

In  the  presence  of  so  much  greatness  Professor 
Josiah  Matthews  Dodd  was  embarrassed.  He  nerv 
ously  brushed  off  some  of  the  dandruff  that  lay  thick 
upon  his  shoulders,  pulled  down  his  waistcoat, 
crossed  his  legs,  uncrossed  them,  then  crossed 
them  again.  A  type  of  the  white  pedagogue  that 
taught  negro  free  schools  for  several  years  after  the 
passing  of  the  carpetbagger,  this  excellent  teacher  of 
Fluvanna  county  believed  that  the  time  had  come 
when  his  great  mental  and  moral  worth  would  re 
ceive  substantial  recognition.  The  general  appeared 
to  be  absorbed  in  his  newspaper;  at  least  he  gave  no 
attention  to  his  visitor. 

"  I'm  lookin'  arter  your  intrusts  in  my  county, 
Gen'I." 

Unable  to  attract  the  leader's  attention,  the  school- 


THE    BETRAYAL  71 

master's  teeth  began  to  chatter,  for  fear  was  added 
to  his  embarrassment.  However,  he  was  obliged  to 
continue. 

"  I've  got  all  them  as  sends  to  free  schools  workin' 
for  you,  white  an'  black.  Every  man's  bein'  talked 
to."' 

Wheeling  in  his  chair,  the  general  brought  his  fist 
down  on  his  desk  with  a  resounding  whack  that  con 
vulsed  the  pedagogue. 

"Are  you  clinching  their  votes?  That  is  your 
business!  That  is  what  I  wish  to  know!  " 

"  We're  havin'  night  meetin's  in  all  the  nigger 
churches  an'  schoolhouses,  'deed  we  is.  I  ain't  leav- 
in'  no  stone  onturned.  Every  man's  beln'  brought 
out — even  them  as  is  old  an'  sick." 

"  Are  you  making  them  understand  that  the 
money  that  should  be  used  to  maintain  free  schools 
is  being  applied  to  the  payment  of  the  debt?  " 

General  Murphy's  round  eyes  searched  Professor 
Dodd's  dull  face. 

u  I've  tole  'em  so  over  agin  an'  agin.  They  knows, 
they  does,  an'  they  ain't  got  no  patience  with  them 
Debtpayers." 

Professor  Dodd  paused.  His  chieftain  returned 
to  the  Whig,  having  lost  interest  in  the  good  people 
of  Fluvanna,  as  the  educator  supposed.  After  a 
while  the  professor  twirled  his  hat,  now  vigorously, 
now  slowly;  blew  his  nose  noisily,  then  carefully  re 
placed  his  bandana  in  his  pocket  so  that  its  four 
corners  peeped  out.  Next  his  small  dull  eyes  sought 
his  feet;  then  they  glanced  furtively  at  Murphy's 
face.  After  a  while  something  akin  to  peace  en 
tered  the  professor's  soul;  he  gazed  out  of  the  win 
dow  dreamily,  blinking  in  a  kind  of  ecstatic  way.  His 


72 

poetic  temperament  ,in  a  measure  had  taken  the 
place  of  his  fear,  and  all  his  great  worth  stood 
naked  before  him. 

"  Ain't  I  goin'  to  git  nothin'  ?  " 

Few  leaders  of  men  can  use  irony  effectively;  yet 
that  weapon  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  of  all 
mental  ordnance  when  directed  by  a  master  in  deal 
ing  with  his  inferiors.  General  Murphy  reserved 
his  irony  for  peasants,  and  for  those  yeomen  that  he 
knew  to  be  dishonest. 

"  Why,  Professor  Dodd,  you  will  receive  the  re 
ward  of  virtue." 

"  Me  an'  my  folks  has  enjoyed  that  reward  long 
enough.  Ain't  it  time  for  us  to  be  havin'  a  little 
suppen  more  to  the  p'int  as  well  as  them  that's  had 
office  ever  since  I  kin  remember?" 

Now  the  general's  manner  changed.  Laying  aside 
his  newspaper  with  a  quick  movement,  he  spoke  in 
tones  that  were  sharp  and  incisive. 

"So;  you  are  beginning  to  wake  up,  are  you? 
Good !  But  you  are  not  awake  yet.  Go  back  to 
your  friends  and  tell  them  that  when  they  are 
finally  aroused  they  will  find  the  offices  still  in  the 
possession  of  the  few  elect  that  were  sent  by  Al 
mighty  God  to  govern  such  men  as  you  and  I." 

"All  right,  Gen'l,  I'll  tell  'em.  But  we  ain't 
asleep.  You'll  find  us  wide  awake  next  November,  I 
kin  tell  you." 

"  Keep  up  your  night  meetings." 

The  leader,  finality  in  his  manner,  intending  to 
force  Mr.  Dodd  to  state  the  payment  that  he  expected 
for  his  services,  took  up  the  Whig. 

'  You  kin  count  on  me,  Gen'l;  'deed  you  kin." 

Professor    Dodd    wondered    if    he    could    count 


THE     BETRAYAL  73 

on  General  Murphy.  A  pause  followed  the  educa 
tor's  last  assurance.  Again  he  fidgeted.  Then  the 
general  fell  into  his  old  habit  of  talking  to  him 
self. 

"  There  is  the  office  of  superintendent  of  public 
schools  of  Fluvanna  county  .  .  .  Yes,  the  office 
of  superintendent  of  schools  of  old  Flu.  ...  A 
man  of  Professor  Dodd's  erudition  is  peculiarly  fitted 
for  that  office — peculiarly  fitted  indeed." 

A  rap  on  the  door  brought  the  interview  to  a 
timely  end.  Professor  Dodd  was  exhilarated.  He 
had  not  expected  so  great  a  reward. 

Thousands  of  yeomen  and  peasants  knew 
Murphy  personally,  for  he  had  travelled  in 
every  county  in  the  state,  and  many  of  them  had 
served  in  his  command  on  fields  of  glory.  As  he 
swept  his  little  round  eyes  over  the  three  persons  that 
appeared  before  him  he  already  knew  the  measure 
of  each.  They  were  from  the  same  town,  and  for 
reasons  of  their  own  had  banded  together  in  the 
cause  of  readjusterism;  hence  it  was  safe  to  talk  to 
them  in  a  body.  Murphy's  sense  of  generalship 
told  him  the  man  to  deal  with  first. 

A  negro,  Mr.  Buck  Johnson,  seated  himself  in  the 
one  visitor's  chair.  His  companions  stood  several 
feet  removed  from  their  swarthy  colleague. 

"  How  are  times  in  Salem,  gentlemen?  " 

"  Hard,  mighty  hard,  Gen'l." 

There  was  pathos  in  the  dolorous  tones  of  Mr. 
Thomas  T.  Fletcher,  a  farmer,  as  he  replied  to  Mur 
phy's  question.  All  Virginians  are  orators.  Even 
the  babbling  infant  has  the  oratorical  instinct.  His 
tears  flow  in  rounded  periods. 


74  THE    BETRAYAL 

The  farmer  continued  after  a  pause  that  he  thought 
was  long  enough  for  oratorical  effect. 

"  Times  is  hard,  mighty  hard.  Them  taxes  is  so 
heavy  that  by  the  time  I've  paid  mine  nothin'  will  be 
left  for  my  wife  and  children." 

"  Your  fields  are  covered  with  wheat." 

"  Yes,  sir,  they  is;  but  taxes  will  take  every  cent 
I'll  get  for  that  wheat,  and  I'll  have  to  put  another 
mortgage  on  the  place  before  I  ken  pay  all  them 
taxes.  It's  a  mighty  hard  business,  General,  mighty 
hard,  I  says,  when  a  Confederate  soldier  like  me, 
that's  lost  a  limb,  has  to  see  his  owns  a-growin'  up 
to  man'ood  and  woman'ood  without  no  eddication." 

Again  Mr.  Fletcher  paused,  that  in  an  oratorical 
sort  of  way  he  might  cast  a  tearful  glance  at  his 
empty  sleeve. 

"  It's  a  mighty  hard  business,  I  says,  to  see  them 
taxes  as  comes  outen  my  wheat  and  mortgages  used 
to  pay  debts,  when  my  owns  is  a-growin'  up  without 
no  eddication." 

'True,  Mr.  Fletcher;  only  too  true;  only  too 
true!  The  conditions  in  this  state  are  unbearable." 

"When's  we  goin'  git  relief?" 

General  Murphy  left  the  answer  to  his  visitors. 

"  Immediately  after  the  election,  if  you  persuade 
property  holders  to  vote  for  readjustment." 

"  We'll  do  our  best.  The  sooner  we  git  rid  of 
them  debts  the  better." 

"  Now,  now,  Mr.  Fletcher,"  said  the  general,  half- 
jocular,  half-serious,  "who  said  anything  about  re 
pudiation?  " 

The   devastating  black   scourge   now  broke   out. 

"  We  ain'  sayin'  nuttin'  'bout  no  'pudiatin',  but  I 


THE     BETRAYAL  75 

specs  us  cullud  gemmen  knows  dyah's  gwine  be  no 
debt  arter  'lection." 

General  Murphy  had  offended  Mr.  Jerry  W. 
Brown  when  he  selected  Mr.  Fletcher  as  spokesman 
for  the  party.  Brown  had  enjoyed  a  local  reputa 
tion  as  an  orator  for  many  years,  and  now  his  chief 
complaint  was  his  inability  to  provide  a  place  in  the 
aristocracy  for  himself  and  his  family  through  his 
oratory.  The  Readjuster  movement  seemed  to  him 
to  be  the  opportunity  of  a  lifetime.  As  the  holder 
of  an  important  office  he  would  gain  for  himself 
and  his  family  the  social  prominence  in  his  com 
munity  that  he  so  greatly  coveted.  He  now  entered 
the  discussion  in  his  characteristic  manner. 

"  I'm  for  the  people,  the  plain  people,  the  people 
that  were  good  enough  for  George  Washington  and 
Thomas  Jefferson !  I'm  the  poor  man's  friend !  I 
believe  that  government  should  be  the  means  of  giv 
ing  every  man  a  chance,  that  every  man  may  float 
upon  ethereal  clouds  of  glory!  " 

"  I've  put  it  mighty  plain  to  Mr.  Brown,"  said  the 
farmer,  "  that  it's  high  time  for  him  and  other  city 
folks  to  see  that  the  farmer  gits  some  rights,  I  has, 
General." 

"  I'm  a  great  believer  in  equal  rights,"  interposed 
Mr.  Brown,  whose  chest  swelled  visibly  despite  his 
oratorical  instinct,  which  warned  him  that  modesty 
becometh  the  man  of  true  greatness. 

Again  the  black  terror  broke  bounds. 

"  'Quality — e-qual-it-ty — dat's  what  us  cullud  folks 
wants,  boss." 

Then  the  dusky  gentleman  cowed  before  the  frigid 
scrutiny  of  his  great  commander. 


76  THE    'BETRAYAL 

Once  more  the  elements  of  eloquence  arose  in  Mr. 
Brown's  powerful  chest. 

"  The  plain  people,  sir,  weary  of  this  nonsense 
about  honour.  Judge  Black  was  right  when  he  rose, 
amid  the  plaudits  of  a  mighty  multitude,  and  de 
clared  that  '  honour  will  not  buy  a  beefsteak.'  The 
people  cry  for  bread;  you  give  them  honour — • 
honour,  sirs,  honour;  honour  to  men  that  are  starv 
ing!  Mr.  Fletcher,  sir,  I  appeal  to  you:  What 
right — I  demand  to  know — what  right  did  the  gov 
ernor  have  to  veto  Parson  Jones'  school  bill !  That 
bill,  sir,  was  a  wise  measure,  one  that  might  have 
been  drawn  by  Solomon  himself.  Tax  money  should 
be  set  aside  to  provide  for  free  schools  according  to 
our  constitution.  But  what  do  the  Debtpayers  say? 
Hark  ye !  'I  would  see  a  bonfire  made  out  of  every 
schoolhouse  in  Virginia  before  I  would  vote  for  the 
parson's  school  bill ! '  In  the  language  of  great 
Patrick  Henry,  the  friend  of  the  plain  people,  I  say, 
'  Give  me  liberty,  or  give  me  death ! '  Aye,  let  me 
repeat,  in  the  language  of  the  motto  of  our  noble 
state,  'Sic  Semper  Tyrannis!' 

Whereupon  Mr.  Brown  stamped  his  foot  vigor 
ously  and  assumed  the  attitude  of  a  gladiator  stand 
ing  over  the  prostrate  form  of  his  victim.  He  felt 
that  his  eloquence  had  fairly  won  the  nomination 
that  he  sought — secretary  of  the  commonwealth. 

"  I  have  heard  of  your  speeches,  Mr.  Brown," 
said  the  general.  "  Your  fruitful  work  in  spreading 
the  precepts  of  true  democracy  deserves  substantial 
reward." 

u  I  do  not  pretend  to  say  that  I  am  without  po 
litical  ambition — an  ambition  that  is  honourable 
among  all  men,  and  therefore  is  not  by  any  to  be 


THE    BETRAYAL  77 

entered  into  unadvisedly  or  lightly;  but  reverently, 
discreetly,  advisedly,  soberly,  and  in  the  fear  of 
God."  Then  Mr.  Brown  looked  significantly  at 
General  Murphy.  "  I,  sir,  am  not  without  political 
ambition." 

"You  would  be  of  great  service  to  our  party,  Mr. 
Brown,  if  you  would  address  the  political  gatherings 
of  your  section  during  the  campaign." 

Then  the  orator,  fully  equal  to  the  occasion,  with 
humility  that  was  truly  affecting,  made  use  of  his 
choicest  language. 

"  Sir,  it  is  my  pleasure,  in  which  I  am  greatly  hon 
oured,  to  serve  my  state  upon  the  hustings,  that  great 
forum  of  the  plain  people,  as  well  as  in  office.  Sir, 
I  here  dedicate  my  life  to  their  service,  without  hope 
of  reward  other  than  gratitude — the  gratitude,  sir, 
of  the  plain  people,  the  plain  people  that  are  God's 
anointed." 

Again  General  Murphy  thought  aloud  as  he 
gazed  abstractedly  out  of  the  window. 

"  Secretary  of  the  commonwealth.  .  .  An  ap 
propriate  office  for  an  able  man  from  the  Salem  sec 
tion.  .  .  .  Yes,  yes,  secretary  of  the  common 
wealth  for  Mr.  Brown." 

Once  more  that  black  cloud  of  evil. 

"  I  wants  er  office,  an'  I  jes'  tells  you,  Mr.  Gen'l, 
ef  I  gits  er  office,  you  gits  de  vote  ob  de  cullud 
cit'zens  ob  mah  county." 

The  leader  said  nothing,  but  expressed  his  annoy 
ance  at  Buck's  aggressiveness  by  a  heavy  frown,  and 
by  a  cold  stare  from  his  cruel  round  eyes.  But  after 
all,  these  interviews  were  not  without  their  amusing 
features,  revolting  as  they  were  to  him. 

"  What  office  would  you  like,  Mr.  Johnson?  " 


78  THE    BETRAYAL 

Nor  was  the  African  gentleman  without  oratorical 
instinct.  He  got  up;  Mr.  Fletcher  sat  down. 

"  I  wants  ter  run  fo'  county  clerk.  I'd  like  ter  set 
in  de  shade  an'  fan  mahse'f  wid  er  pa'mleaf  fan  in 
de  summer  time.  Mr.  Smythe  he  done  set  on  his 
hawse  wid  er  umbreller  ober  him,  whilst  I  gits  de 
full  benefit  ob  de  sun,  cradlin'  ob  his  wheat." 

"  Can  you  read  and  write?  " 

"  Naw,  suh;  but  den  I  done  thought  as  how  I'd 
git  some  cullud  gemmen  to  hole  down  dat  aspec'  ob 
de  job,  whilst  I  draws  de  pay  to  recommence  me  fo' 
all  de  time  an'  money  I'll  hatter  spen  ter  git  de 
party  'lected." 

"  You  are  a  shrewd  politician,  Mr.  Johnson.  Of 
course  you  may  have  the  office  of  county  clerk — if  my 
party  be  elected.  I  know  of  no  man  that  is  better 
qualified  than  you  to  satisfy  the  requirements  of  that 
high  place." 

"  An'  say,  boss,  dem  niggers  ain'  gwine  vote  fo'  no 
man  widout  er  li'P  'baccy  money.  Ain'  yo  got  none 
ter  give  'em?  " 

"  Your  expenses  will  be  paid  out  of  the  campaign 
fund,  Mr.  Johnson.  A  substantial  sum  will  be  placed 
at  your  disposal." 

As  an  element  in  politics  the  negro  was  regarded 
as  a  necessity  by  all  Repudiators,  to  be  swallowed  like 
treacle  by  the  body  politic. 

The  farmer  arose,  intending  to  depart.  He  cared 
neither  for  office  nor  society,  but  asked  for  relief 
from  taxation,  nothing  more.  But  no  promise 
had  been  made  to  Mr.  Fletcher.  Why?  The  bonds 
would  have  to  be  debased  and  later  be  restored  to 
their  face  value.  So  Mr.  Fletcher  left  without  know 
ing  whether  he  would  get  any  kind  of  relief,  for 


THE     BETRAYAL  79 

General  Murphy  was  unwilling,  even  under  dire 
necessity,  to  say  to  any  man  that  he  would  repudiate 
or  would  not  repudiate  all  or  a  part  of  the  public 
debt.  The  Readjusters  would  constitute  a  party  "  in 
being  "  until  after  the  campaign  had  been  fought  and 
won.  There  were  regiments  in  the  armies  of  the 
enemy  that  would  possibly  desert.  Now  he  would 
satisfy  every  man — from  the  aristocrat  of  scrupulous 
honour  to  the  vile  black  chicken-thief.  Mr.  Fletcher 
was  satisfied,  for  General  Murphy  was  the  friend  of 
the  plain  people. 

Even  Murphy's  few  honest  callers  were  satisfied 
when  they  left  him.  Had  not  Mr.  John  Randolph 
Harrison  said  at  the  Morven  ball  that  he  did 
not  question  Murphy's  integrity?  Had  not  the 
general  offered  his  life  in  battle  to  protect 
Virginia? 

The  delegation  from  Salem  barely  had  left  the 
Presence  when  another  visitor  entered  the  general's 
office,  Mr.  Samuel  A.  Tanner,  commonly  called  old 
Sam  Tanner,  a  native  and  a  resident  of  the  Eastern 
Shore,  and  representative  of  the  brand  of  Readjus 
ters  that  infested  the  section  of  Virginia  that  might 
have  been  used  by  God's  angels  as  their  garden. 

A  single  case  that  was  tried  before  a  justice  of  the 
peace  had  constituted  Mr.  Tanner's  practice  of  the 
law  during  the  last  past  six  months.  In  consequence 
his  trousers  were  trimmed  with  lace;  or,  as  the 
children  sang  out  whenever  they  saw  him — 

"  Tanner    wears    fringe    on    his    trousers 
And  fastens  'em  up  with  a  nail." 

He  wore  no  cuffs;  his  frayed  collar,  which  was  un 
adorned  by  a  necktie,  was  another  evidence  of  his 


8o  THE    BETRAYAL 

rigid  economy,  while  his  peaked,  starved  appearance 
further  witnessed  his  distress. 

"  Ah-h-h-h,  Mr.  Tanner;  I  am  indeed  glad  to  see 
you!" 

The  two  gentlemen  shook  hands  cordially. 

"  Well,  Gen'l,  everything  is  comin'  our  way. 
We'll  sweep  the  state  this  fall  same  as  a  meteor 
sweeps  the  heavens;  which  is  a  lit'rary  way  of  sayin' 
as  how  I  suspicion  an  overwhelmin'  victory  for  us 
Readjusters  when  the  frost  is  on  the  sweet  potato 
vine— 

'  Then  we  are  gaining  strength  in  Northampton 
and  Accomack  counties?  " 

"  Gainin'  strength?  Why,  my  dear  Gen'l,  with 
sufficient  financial  display  I  kin  carry  them  two  coun 
ties  in  my  pants'  pockets;  yes,  sir,  an'  carry  'em  ad 
in-fin-e-tum  to  boot;  I  kin,  I  sw'ar!  " 

"Good!" 

"  But  them  funds  must  be  handled  by  the  right 
man,  Gen'l;  yes,  siree,  by  an  honest  man;  an'  that's 
bonefidely  so  for  a  fact.  You  know  the  old  sayin',  a 
motto  I  wear  next  my  heart,  Honesty's  the  best 
politics." 

"  You  are  the  man  to  display  the  money.  But  no 
party  should  expect  a  citizen  of  your  ability  to  sacri 
fice  his  large  law  practice  and  devote  his  time  to  the 
public  weal  unless  he  be  properly  compensated." 

"  No  man  in  them  two  counties  knows  better  than 
me  where  money  displayed  will  act  as  a  set-off  to  the 
vicissitudes  of  voters;  but  as  you  1'arnedly  remarked, 
no  party  oughter  expect  me  to  sacrifice  my  lucrative 
practice  unless  T  gits  paid  by  my  new  clients,  the  peo 
ple.  The  labourer,  my  dear  Gen'l,  is  worthy  of  his 
hire  in  every  field — political  as  well  as  corn." 


THE    BETRAYAL  81 

Whereupon  the  worthy  labourer  emitted  a  stream 
of  liquid  tobacco,  which  coursed  down  his  once  white 
shirt  front  on  its  way  to  the  spittoon,  which  it 
missed. 

"  Thar,  I  didn't  skeet  that  thar  amber  straight!  " 

He  kicked  the  spittoon  toward  his  chair — the  chair 
with  its  stiff,  upright  back  of  integrity — then 
paused,  thus  allowing  the  ghost  financial  an  oppor 
tunity  to  stalk. 

"  Several  of  your  strong  friends  have  suggested 
your  peculiar  fitness  for  the  circuit  judgeship  of  the 
district  that  includes  your  two  counties.  The  office 
seeks  the  man.  Your  sense  of  duty  to  the  party  will 
make  you  invaluable  to  the  plain  people  of  the  entire 
commonwealth.  The  state  is  indeed  fortunate." 

The  offer  was  made  with  the  dignity  of  the  mili 
tary  commander  who  knows  that  every  soldier  is  en 
titled  to  a  reward,  and  to  a  reward  more  substantial 
than  mere  knowledge  of  duty  faithfully  performed. 
The  general's  grand  strategy  included  ample  provi 
sion  for  suitable  payments  to  his  civil  followers,  as 
he  had  provided  suitable  rewards  for  the  soldiers  of 
his  military  command.  He  never  denied  his  troops 
glory,  the  only  wage  that  he  could  pay.  Indeed,  he 
held  honour  to  be  the  soldier's  reward. 

"  Circuit  judge?  As  the  great  jurist  John  Mar 
shall  used  to  say,  To  be,  or  not  to  be;  that  is  the 
question.  I  must  consider.  I'm  a  busy  man,  Gen'l; 
the  burdens  of  the  whole  peninsula  rest  on  my  shoul 
ders  a'ready.  Let  me  see?  Like  Atlas,  I  carry  a 
load." 

And  he  did — at  times  a  very  heavy  load. 

"  If  I  work  pro  bon-no  pub-lee-co,  I'll  have  to  give 
up  a  fine  practice.  But  my  friends  meant  kindly 


82  THE     BETRAYAL 

what  they  done,  when,  sir-rat-em,  they  brought  the 
matter  to  your  gifted  attention." 

'  The  position  is  an  honourable  one,  Mr.  Tanner. 
When  the  old  Romans  heard  the  call  to  duty  sounded 
they  waived  all  personal  consideration." 

"And  so  will  I,  Gen'l;  'pon  my  life  I  will.  The 
judicial  ermine  ain't  goin'  to  rest  on  no  shoulders 
more  willin'  than  mine.  I'll  sacrifice  my  law  prac 
tice  like  Abraham  sacrificed  his  son  to  Moses.  The 
peaceful  repose  of  my  home  will  I  lay  upon  the  altar 
of  self-sacrifice.  I'll  show  the  world — the  world  of 
plain  people — that  vox  popular  is  vox  Do- em-best, 
for  I'll  uphold  all  the  laws  our  new  legislature  will 
make." 

As  the  general  seemed  to  be  preoccupied,  the  self- 
sacrificing  patriot  continued: 

"  Just  as  soon  as  I  get  back  to  Eastville  I'll  take 
down  my  Blackiston  and  refresh  my  law  memory, 
for  I  don't  want  my  decisions  to  have  no  im-press-io 
false-eye." 

No  doubt  Mr.  Tanner  meant  that  he  would  read 
closely  the  laws  that  defined  the  limitations  of  judges 
and  provided  punishments  to  fit  their  crimes. 

"Really — er — ah — Judge  Tanner  1  "  said  the  gen 
eral,  looking  at  his  watch. 

"  I  am  obliged  to  leave  you  now,  Gen'l,  for,  as 
we  lawyers  say,  the  tempest  figits.  Good-mornin', 
Gen'l  Murphy." 

"  Good-morning,  Judge  Tanner.  The  campaign 
funds  will  be  forwarded  to  you  in  a  few  days. 
Please  spend  the  money  in  your  discretion." 

The  Eastern  Shore  of  Virginia,  Tanner's  wage! 
Ah,  what  a  maiden  to  be  ravished! 


THE    BETRAYAL  83 

Are  you  a  musician?  There  birds  sing  by  night 
as  they  sing  by  day,  filling  the  air  with  melody  that 
no  human  master  may  successfully  imitate. 

Are  you  a  maiden?  There  flowers  are  nearly  as 
fair  as  the  maidens  of  that  fairyland,  flowers  which 
bloom  every  day  in  every  year,  flowers  that  are  in 
the  air  as  they  are  in  the  garden,  the  garden  that  is 
the  Eastern  Shore. 

Are  you  a  huntsman?  There  ducks,  geese,  quail, 
and  snipe  make  their  home,  and  there  the  huntsman 
neither  is  hungry  nor  surfeited,  for  he  has  only  to 
reach  out  his  hand  for  diamond-back  terrapin  and 
the  best  of  oysters,  food  that  no  king  other  than  an 
Eastern  Shoresman  may  eat,  yet  in  eating  never  be 
come  satiated. 

Are  you  a  man?  There  breezes  from  the  sea  to 
the  east  and  from  the  bay  to  the  west  bring  strength 
to  the  strongest  man;  and  as  they  caress  his  cheeks 
he  becomes  as  an  army  of  men,  as  the  kiss  of  a 
woman  makes  an  army  of  the  man  who  leaves  her 
to  go  to  war. 

Are  you  a  poet?  There  marshes  challenged  the 
imagery  of  Lanier,  whose  hymns  are  sung  by 
angels — 

"But  no:  it  is  made:  list!  somewhere, — mystery,  where? 

In  the  leaves?  in  the  air? 
In  my  heart?  is  a  motion  made; 

'T  is  a  motion  of  dawn,  like  a  flicker  of  shade  on  shade. 
In  the  leaves,  't   is  palpable:  low  multitudinous   stirring 
Upwinds  through  the  woods;   the  little  ones,  softly  conferring, 
Have  settled  my  lord's  to  be  looked  for;  so;  they  are  still; 
But  the  air  and  my  heart  and  the  earth  are  a-thrill, — 
And  look  where  the  wild  duck  sails  round  the  bend  of  the 

river, — 

And  look  where  a  passionate  shiver 
Expectant  is  bending  the  blades 


84  THE    BETRAYAL 

Of  the  marsh-grass   in   serial   shimmers  and   shades, — 
And   invisible  wings,  fast  fleeting,  fast  fleeting, 

Are  beating 

The  dark  overhead  as  my  heart  beats, — and  steady  and  free 
Is  the  ebb-tide  flowing  from  marsh  to  sea — 

(Run   home,   little   streams, 
With   your  lapfuls  of  stars  and   dreams), — 
And    a   sailor  unseen   is  hoisting   a-peak, 
For  list,  down  the  inshore  curve  of  the  creek 

How  merrily  flutters  the  sail, — 
And  lo,  in  the  East!    Will  the  East  unveil? 
The  East  is  unveiled,  the  East  hath  confessed 
A  flush;   't  is  dead;   't  is  alive;   't  is  dead,  ere  the  West 
Was  aware  of  it;   nay,   't   is  abiding,  't  is  unwithdrawn: 
Have  a  care,  sweet  Heaven!     'T  is  Dawn." 


Left  alone,  General  Murphy  walked  up  and  down 
his  room. 

"Bah!  ...  '  The  plain  people  '  ...  Bah! 
.  .  *  The  voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice  of 
God'  .  .  .  Bah!  .  .  .  Colonel  Daingerfield 
says  that  the  voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice  of  the 
devil.  .  .  He  is  wrong!  .  .  .  The  voice  of  the 
people  is  the  voice  of  power — the  power  of  one 
man.  .  .  .  'Say,  boss,'  bah;  the  filthy  creature! 
Bah!  Bah!" 

The  general  buried  his  face  in  the  flowers. 

The  morning  had  been  a  busy  one.  But  Murphy 
was  always  on  duty — planning  iniquities  by  night 
and  working  them  out  by  day,  said  his  enemies. 
Now  he  walked  rapidly  toward  his  home,  for  he  was 
late,  and  he  had  invited  an  important  man  to  dine 
with  him,  a  personage  no  less  than  Captain  James 
Spotswood  Temple.  That  gentleman  wished  to  con 
sult  the  general  before  finally  answering  the  ques 
tions,  Am  I  a  Readjuster?  Am  I  a  Debtpayer?  He 


THE    BETRAYAL  85 

had  almost  reached  the  decision  to  disregard  Col 
onel  Daingerfield's  warning,  for  he  thought  that 
the  gentry  and  the  plain  people  had  reached 
the  parting  of  the  ways,  and  was  morally  cer 
tain  that  the  doom  of  the  aristocracy  had  been 
sounded  already,  that  the  annihilation  of  the  gentry 
would  be  simply  a  matter  of  a  few  years,  even  if 
the  yeomanry  and  the  peasantry  should  be  defeated 
in  the  fall  elections. 

Although  a  mere  lad,  Captain  Temple  had  fought 
bravely  in  the  war,  first  as  a  cadet  of  the  Virginia 
Military  Institute,  receiving  a  serious  wound  at  New 
Market,  and  later  as  a  private.  After  the  war  he 
became  captain  of  a  company  in  the  Virginian 
militia.  His  father,  the  late  Alexander  Spotswood 
Temple,  of  Accomack  county,  formerly  governor  of 
Virginia,  later  brigadier-general  in  the  Confederate 
army,  was  one  of  the  most  eminent  Virginians  of 
the  nineteenth  century. 

Now  when  General  Murphy  invited  Captain 
Temple  to  dinner  he  had  intended  that  the  aristo 
crat  should  see  that  the  Murphys  and  their  friends 
could  entertain  formally  quite  as  well  as  the  Tem 
ples;  but  he  had  not  intended  to  relinquish  his  mas 
tery  of  the  political  situation.  Having  come  to 
sound  him,  Temple  would  be  treated  in  a  way  that 
would  indicate  that  his  services  would  be  accepted 
with  reluctance,  if  at  all.  Murphy  knew  the  power 
that  he  had  over  Temple  in  the  appeal  that  he  could 
make  to  his  ambition;  Temple  knew  that  for  many 
reasons  the  Readjusters  had  to  have  members  of  the 
aristocracy  in  their  party. 

Temple  had  another  powerful  weapon  with  which 
to  fight  Murphy  and  his  kind.  He  was  prepared 


66  THE    BETRAYAL 

to  wield  it  unmercifully,  and  even  to  take  delight  in 
thrusting  its  keen  double  edge  through  and  through 
his  victims.  He  could  treat  Murphy  and  his  associates, 
women  as  well  as  men,  as  underlings;  snub  them,  hu 
miliate  them  again  and  again.  Then  he  would  smile, 
and  with  that  smile  their  poor  souls  would  be  carried 
in  wild  flights  upon  the  wings  of  ecstasy.  He  believed 
in  kicking  the  peasant  dog.  He  knew  that  the  poor 
creature  would  fear  him  because  of  his  cruelty,  then 
lick  his  hand;  he  knew  that  the  peasant  respects  the 
gentleman  that  treats  him  as  an  inferior,  that 
he  despises  the  gentleman  that  treats  him  as  an 
equal.  But  was  Murphy  that  kind  of  man?  If  so, 
would  he  return  to  lick  the  hand  of  his  social 
master?  Temple  could  not  say.  Murphy  would 
have  known;  but  Temple  did  not  know.  Yet 
Temple  was  shrewd,  with  many  of  the  elements 
of  a  great  man.  He  knew  many  things,  but  he  did 
not  know  all  things.  If  no  law  of  hospitality  re 
strained  Murphy,  also  it  was  true  that  no  such  law 
had  the  least  weight  with  Temple;  besides,  he  knew 
that  social  amenities  would  not  in  the  least  influence 
his  host. 

As  the  members  of  Murphy's  family  were  all 
visiting  in  Norfolk,  the  general  had  asked  Miss 
Amanda  Burgess,  a  white-haired  yeoman  maiden 
lady,  to  preside  at  the  formal  midday  dinner.  She 
brought  with  her  two  young  yeoman  girls.  "  Such 
a  chance,  gyurls !  "  she  had  said. 

Promptly  at  half-past  one  Captain  Temple  ar 
rived.  He  was  cordially  received  by  General  Mur 
phy,  who  introduced  him  to  Miss  Amanda.  Already 
she  had  two  mint-juleps  prepared. 

"  Now,  gentlemen,  walk  right  up  to  the  sideboard. 


THE    BETRAYAL  87 

I  know  how  men-folks  love  mint-juleps  a-fore  din 
ner." 

"  Miss  Amanda,"  said  Captain  Temple  as  he 
summoned  a  look  of  joy  to  his  eyes  and  held  his 
glass  on  high,  "  Miss  Amanda,  ma'am,  pray  tell  me, 
who  made  this  mint-julep?  But  need  I  ask?  The 
fame,  ma'am,  of  your  juleps  has  extended  through 
out  Virginia's  broad  land.  General,  just  look  at  the 
frost  on  my  glass!  On  my  life,  it  is  half  an  inch 
deep!  Your  health,  ma'am,  and  your  beauty;  for, 
ma'am,  your  beauty  is  no  less  now  that  frost  adds 
lustre  to  the  roses  of  your  cheeks  than  when  those 
lovely  flowers  bloomed  beneath  a  golden  canopy." 

Whereupon  the  captain  buried  his  face  in  the  mint, 
and  drank  long  and  deep,  while  roses  did  bloom  in 
Miss  Amanda's  faded  cheeks  for  quite  a  while. 

Dinner  was  announced  by  a  pickaninny  vigorously 
ringing  a  bell.  As  soon  as  they  had  entered  the 
dining-room  Miss  Amanda  proceeded  to  present  the 
two  girls  to  the  guest. 

"  Captain  Temple,  allow  me  to  make  you  ac 
quainted  with  Miss  La  Salle  Saunders  an'  Miss 
Maiabelle  Berry.  You  folks  shake  hands  now  and 
be  real  friendly  like." 

"  Pleased  to  know  you,  Captain  Temple,"  said 
Miss  La  Salle,  her  face  scarlet. 

Miss  Maiabelle  shook  hands  with  this  visitor  from 
an  unknown  world  with  composure,  although  her 
face  had  flushed  a  deep  and  lasting  red.  At  least 
Miss  Amanda  might  have  presented  the  gentleman 
to  the  ladies.  Both  girls  were  splendid  types  of  the 
Virginian  bourgeoisie,  healthy,  and  even  beautiful. 
Mr.  Berry  had  named  his  daughter  Mary,  but  after 
his  ambitious  wife  had  read  all  the  novels  that  Miss 


88  THE    BETRAYAL 

Rosa  Carey  had  kindly  written  for  kitchen  ladies, 
she  changed  the  name  of  the  little  girl  to  Maia,  and 
that  name  later  gave  place  to  Maiabelle,  believed  by 
Mrs.  Berry  to  be  the  more  aristocratic  name.  Miss 
La  Salle  was  named  Sally  at  the  time  of  her  birth; 
but  as  soon  as  her  mother  heard  that  the  daughter 
of  an  ignorant  old  peasant  that  lived  near  Norfolk 
had  changed  her  name  from  Sally  to  La  Salle  when 
she  married  a  major-general  of  the  Confederate 
army,  himself  a  peasant,  whose  fame  rested  on 
a  charge  made  by  his  men  that  he  did  not  lead,  she 
thought  that  she  could  improve  upon  that  course  by 
changing  her  daughter's  name  before  she  would  be 
of  marriageable  age. 

u  I  did  not  have  the  pleasure  of  meeting  you 
young  ladies  at  the  ball  last  night.  Fortunately  I 
reached  Petersburg  in  time  to  dance  several 
waltzes." 

"  Father  doesn't  approve  of  round  dancing,  so 
I've  never  been  to  a  ball,"  said  Miss  La  Salle,  the 
flush  on  her  pretty  cheeks  deepening. 

"  My  brother,  Dr.  Burgess,  never  let  none  of 
his  gyurls  round  dance,  and  they  all  married  splen 
didly,"  said  the  maiden  lady,  a  note  of  triumph  in 
her  voice. 

"  I  can  plead  no  such  excuse,"  Miss  Maiabelle 
said.  "  I  stayed  at  home  last  night  because  I  re 
ceived  no  invitation." 

"  You  should  have  been  invited,"  said  General 
Murphy,  betraying  some  of  the  bitterness  that  he 
was  unable  to  suppress  entirely.  Again  the  old 
story.  Worthy  women  as  well  as  worthy  men  were 
neglected  socially  and  politically  because  their  fore 
fathers  were  not  aristocrats.  Verily  the  camel 


THE    BETRAYAL  89 

might  stalk  through  the  eye  of  a  needle,  but  neither 
gold  nor  public  service  could  buy  position  in  the 
Virginian  aristocracy. 

"  They  might  as  well  have  saved  their  supper  and 
their  manners  too,  for  I  wouldn't  have  gone  if  I'd 
been  asked,"  said  Miss  La  Salle;  but  everybody  felt 
that  she  was  mistaken. 

"  It  was  a  beautiful  ball,"  the  captain  per 
sisted. 

Miss  Maiabelle  began  to  feel  a  sense  of  rising 
anger,  Miss  La  Salle  bit  her  lip  in  vexation,  while 
Miss  Amanda  expressed  her  emotion  in  words. 

"  I  never  seen  what  pleasure  folks  got  in  leavin' 
out  them  as  might  have  been  asked  without  hurtin' 
themselves.  Ain't  we  all  made  outen  dust,  and  ain't 
that  what  we're  all  a-comin'  to?" 

"  The  first  families  of  Virginia  make  peculiar  dis 
tinctions,  Amanda — Miss  Burgess."  Again  that  bit 
terness.  "  The  time  has  come,  Captain  Temple, 
when  merit  alone  should  be  the  standard  of  social 
fitness.  The  new  party  will  make  many  wholesome 
changes." 

"  Yes, — if — it — be — placed — in — power." 

"  We  will  elect  our  candidates  next  fall  to  the 
man.  Our  success  is  certain.  The  people  feel  that 
the  life  of  the  state  is  in  jeopardy.  The  government 
that  was  founded  by  the  fathers  has  passed  the  ex 
perimental  stage,  and  Virginia  must  fall  into  line 
with  her  sister  states  and  establish  a  government  of 
the  people,  the  whole  people.  The  strength  of  Vir 
ginia  is  in  her  masses.  There  is  no  real  force  in  an 
aristocracy;  nor  can  a  gentry  of  mere  blood  long  en 
dure.  The  so-called  aristocracy  of  this  state  has 
reached  advanced  old  age.  It  is  on  its  death-bed.  A 


90  THE    BETRAYAL 

new  and  greater  aristocracy  is  about  to  take  its  place, 
an  aristocracy  of  mind  and  merit.  The  reign  of  the 
oligarchy  is  over." 

A  long  speech  for  Murphy;  yet  neither  the  julep 
nor  Temple  had  intoxicated  him.  The  captain  un 
derstood. 

'  Now  do  have  some  termatters,  Captain  Tem 
ple,"  Miss  Amanda  insisted. 

'  Thank  you,  to-ma-toes  make  one  of  my  favour 
ite  dishes.  I  assume  that  the  change  in  their  name 
will  not  affect  their  taste  in  the  least." 

The  discomfiture  of  the  girls  was  increased.  O 
you  old  peasants,  how  you  put  to  shame  your  young 
men  and  young  women ! 

Still  Temple  could  not  tell  from  Murphy's  man 
ner  just  how  far  he  could  go  along  that  path.  No 
danger  signal  had  been  hung  out.  To  the  credit  of 
the  Misses  Amanda,  Maiabelle,  and  La  Salle,  be  it 
said,  they  kept  their  peace.  But  oh  the  shame  in 
Miss  Amanda's  good  face,  and  how  Miss  Maiabelle 
flashed  a  look  of  scorn !  Tears  stood  in  Miss  La 
Salle's  pretty  eyes.  But  the  general — went  on  cut 
ting  bread  and  butter.  Captain  Temple  enjoyed  the 
situation  immensely. 

"  I  shall  be  glad  to  take  you  young  ladies  to  Miss 
Bland's  lawn  party  to-morrow  evening.  I  hear  that 
the  best  people  of  the  town  will  be  there." 

"  There's  more  different  sets  in  this  here  town 
than  anywheres  else  in  all  this  world,"  said  Miss  La 
Salle,  a  lone  tear  rolling  down  to  a  corner  of  her 
cupid's  bow.  "  Everybody  thinks  themselves  better 
than  anybody  else,  and  a  few  think  themselves  better 
than  Martha  Washington  herself." 

"  Will  you  take  yourn  with  condiments,  or  with- 


THE    BETRAYAL  91 

out,  Captain  Temple?"  Miss  Amanda  asked  as  she 
poured  out  a  cup  of  coffee  for  the  guest. 

"Just  sugar,  if  you  please;  I  take  neither  pepper 
nor  salt  in  my  coffee." 

Captain  Temple  had  seen  Miss  Maiabelle  look  at 
him  scornfully,  as  if  she  had  expected  his  reply,  so 
he  had  looked  deliberately  at  her  while  he  answered 
Miss  Amanda.  Later  Miss  La  Salle  told  Miss  Maia 
belle  that  she  just  thought  that  she  would  die. 

The  temperature  went  still  further  up — by  many 
degrees.  Danger  signals  were  flying.  Temple  had 
taken  Murphy's  measure.  Now  the  captain  would 
bring  on  rapture  for  dessert;  so  he  took  a  second 
helping  of  ice  cream,  although  It  had  been  coloured 
by  an  aniline  dye;  asked  Miss  Maiabelle  if  she  had 
read  Swinburne's  new  poem,  then  agreed  with  her 
that  only  ladies  of  literary  accomplishments  should 
read  a  poet  so  indelicate;  asked  Miss  La  Salle  for 
her  home  address,  and  told  General  Murphy  that 
General  Lee  had  said  to  General  Temple  that  Mur 
phy's  charge  at  the  Crater  had  never  been  paralleled 
in  justifiable  daring  in  all  the  annals  of  war.  Before 
the  dinner  was  at  an  end,  Temple  counted  it  as  one 
of  his  great  political  triumphs.  Moreover,  two 
hearts  were  added  to  his  heavy-laden  string,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  lifelong  friend  that  he  had  made  in 
good  Miss  Amanda. 

When  the  two  gentlemen  withdrew  to  the  library 
for  cigars,  Benedictine,  brandy,  and  to  exchange  po 
litical  values,  they  still  had  on  their  masks. 

"  I  understand,  Captain  Temple,  that  you  are 
with  us  in  various  features  of  my  party's  plan  to 
establish  the  people  as  sovereign  in  this  state,  to 


92  THE     BETRAYAL 

give  them  an  opportunity  to  recover  from  the  ruin 
that  was  one  of  the  penalties  of  our  war,  to  settle 
the  debt,  and  finally  to  govern  Virginia  as  she  should 
be  governed." 

"  I  have  given  a  great  deal  of  thought  to  the 
subject." 

"  I  have  watched  your  career  with  deep  interest. 
You  are  a  young  man,  yet  already  your  ability  has 
attracted  attention  throughout  the  state,  and  the 
people  are  looking  to  you  for  assistance." 

"I  thank  you,  General;  but  I  fear  that  you 
overrate  my  ability,  although  you  could  not  exag 
gerate  my  desire  to  be  of  real  benefit  to  the  old 
commonwealth  in  this  crisis.  During  the  past  few 
years  I  have  spent  a  great  deal  of  time  in  studying 
financial  conditions,  and  although  I  fear  that 
father  would  not  countenance  the  conclusions  that  I 
have  reached,  I  feel  strongly  impelled  to  cast  the 
little  influence  that  I  have  with  the  Readjusters, 
under  your  wise  leadership." 

'  Your  decision  pleases  me  greatly.  Your  father 
was  one  of  my  best  friends;  and  were  he  alive  I 
believe  that  he  would  support  us  in  this  movement, 
for  he  aided  in  the  settlement  of  the  great  questions 
of  his  day  with  signal  ability.  It  is  for  you  and  the 
young  men  of  your  generation  to  work  out  Vir 
ginia's  destiny  when  my  generation  has  joined  your 
father's." 

General  Murphy  had  never  met  Governor  Tem 
ple. 

"  I  agree  with  you  that  it  is  my  duty  to  follow 
my  conscience." 

He  had  not  been  told  to  be  guided  by  his  con 
science,  as  he  very  well  knew. 


THE    BETRAYAL  93 

The  captain  had  reached  Petersburg  fully  deter 
mined  to  accept  the  nomination  for  the  Lower 
House  of  the  General  Assembly;  but  his  ambition 
having  taken  wings  since  dinner  began,  he  deter 
mined  to  hold  out  for  the  nomination  to  the  Upper 
House,  and  even  touch  upon  the  congressional  situa 
tion.  All  this  was  known  to  Murphy  quite  as  well 
as  to  his  guest,  as  Temple  thought;  but  Murphy  was 
a  great  leader,  and  never  displayed  generalship  of 
higher  order  than  in  awarding  to  his  followers  prizes 
far  beyond  their  expectations.  He  had  measured 
Temple.  Never  had  Murphy  been  known  to  make 
a  mistake  in  his  measurements. 

"  Our  party  needs  a  strong  man  for  the  governor 
ship.  You  would  be  popular  with  all  classes.  Thou 
sands  would  vote  for  you  because  of  your  honoured 
father.  You  would  carry  more  votes  in  the  aristoc 
racy  than  any  possible  candidate,  while  the  plain 
people  would  not  object  to  any  man  that  I  would 
suggest." 

Temple  was  lost  in  admiration  of  Murphy's  gen 
eralship.  But  why,  he  thought,  should  I  be  selected 
for  the  governorship  while  Parson  Jones  is  avail 
able? 

The  sound  of  a  carriage  drawing  up  at  the  door 
caused  the  leader,  alert  always,  to  pause.  Next  he 
heard  the  measured  tread  of  a  deliberate  person 
advancing  along  the  hall,  and  then  the  soft  though 
not  low  voice  of  a  man : 

"  Is  General  Murphy  at  home?  " 

An  intellectual  person  seldom  if  ever  is  surprised. 
General  Murphy  was  not  surprised,  although  he  felt 
sure  that  the  voice  and  footsteps  that  he  heard  be 
longed  to  the  Reverend  John  Henry  Jones,  a  man 


94  THE    BETRAYAL 

that  he  had  never  seen,  and  known  as  "  Parson 
Jones  "  throughout  Virginia. 

Although  in  his  intellectual  and  physical  prime, 
Mr.  Jones  was  well  past  the  meridian  of  life.  Tem 
ple  was  introduced  to  him  after  he  had  shaken  hands 
with  Murphy.  The  parson  declined  wines,  liqueurs, 
and  cigars,  explaining  that  he  neither  drank  nor 
smoked.  After  waiting  long  enough  to  understand 
that  conversation  would  be  commonplace  so  long  as 
he  should  remain,  Captain  Temple  reluctantly  with 
drew.  Greek  had  met  Greek,  and  he  greatly  desired 
to  hear  the  discussion  that  would  take  place  between 
"the  Father  of  Readjustment"  and  the  wiry  little 
man  who  had  usurped  the  parson's  authority  as 
leader  of  the  new  party.  Besides,  his  political  for 
tunes  were  involved.  Would  Murphy  be  able  to 
add  Jones  to  his  following?  Would  the  new  party 
split?  Would  a  Murphy  party  and  a  Jones  party 
be  formed  out  of  the  Readjuster  party,  then  only 
two  months  old? 

The  parson  had  gone  into  politics  with  a  sincere 
desire  to  release  yeomen  and  peasants  from  what  he 
believed  to  be  their  chains  of  bondage.  In  the  be 
ginning  he  believed  himself  to  be  an  honest  man, 
but  he  was  soon  seduced  by  political  excitements  and 
glories.  In  political  affairs  he  soon  differed  from 
Murphy  in  method  only.  A  strange  man  was  Jones 
— part  saint,  part  sinner,  but  always  Parson  Jones. 
Now  he  fought  with  God  as  his  ally,  now  with  the 
devil.  Sometimes  God  and  the  parson  and  the  devil 
all  fought  together,  so  Temple  came  to  believe. 

The  cruel  grey  eyes  of  the  general  looked  into  the 
soft  blue  eyes  that  gazed  at  him  through  great  gold- 
rimmed  spectacles.  There  was  a  man  with  whom 


THE    BETRAYAL  95 

Murphy  had  to  reckon,  a  man  whose  thoughtful  eyes 
showed  that  no  matter  what  his  standard  of  honour, 
whether  limited  to  the  welfare  of  his  own  ministe 
rial  charge  or  as  broad  as  the  whole  wide  world,  he 
was  a  patient  man  of  great  intellectual  power,  capa 
ble  of  deep  suffering  and  tender  sympathy,  yet  will 
ing  to  go  to  any  length  to  exact  reprisals.  Those 
were  the  eyes  of  a  friend;  they  were  the  eyes  of  a 
man  who  could  turn  from  skilful  fencing  in  debate 
to  mingle  his  tears  with  those  of  some  heartbroken 
mother  at  the  bedside  of  her  dying  child;  but  they 
were  not  weak  eyes,  nor  was  the  parson  weak  when 
he  shed  tears  as  he  recited  the  trials  of  his  Saviour 
in  Gethsemane.  Yet  he  had  no  sense  of  the  differ 
ence  that  is  between  right  and  wrong. 

Parson  Jones  had  been  schoolmaster,  lawyer, 
preacher,  and  member  of  the  House  of  Delegates. 
Later  the  Fates  willed  that  he  should  hold  office  in 
Virginia  as  senator,  then  as  auditor  of  public  ac 
counts,  then  as  lieutenant-governor,  and  finally  as 
superintendent  of  public  instruction.  In  the  far-off 
years  he  was  to  be  elected  a  member  of  the  state 
constitutional  convention,  to  die  before  it  would  con 
vene,  well  past  four-score  years,  fighting  to  the  last. 

An  advocate  of  local  option  and  temperance,  he 
thought  too  much  of  the  parson's  political  weal  to 
go  so  far  as  to  advocate  state-wide  prohibition.  A 
great  talker  was  Jones,  and  quite  unscrupulous  in 
his  public  speeches.  The  only  law  of  debate  that  he 
upheld  was  the  one  which  commanded  the  debater 
to  defeat  his  adversary.  Major  John  W.  Daniel 
used  to  say  that  the  parson  knew  the  Bible  by  heart. 
At  least  he  preached  his  political  sermons  out  of  it. 
He  never  took  politics  into  the  pulpit,  he  said,  but 


96  THE    BETRAYAL 

he  often  preached  that  he  took  the  pulpit  into  pol 
itics.  "  That  which  is  not  too  good  for  you  on  Sun 
day,  O  my  beloved,  should  not  be  too  good  for  you 
on  Monday." 

Thought  Murphy,  "  Parson  Jones  is  an  army  of 
men  in  a  single  fort." 

Thought  Jones,  "  General  Murphy  is  a  great 
genius,  and  as  elusive  as  genius  itself." 

"  Dr.  Jones,"  said  Murphy,  "  your  pamphlet, 
'  Debt  and  Taxes;  or,  the  Resources  and  Obligations 
of  Virginia,'  first  caused  me  to  change  my  views  in 
regard  to  the  debt.  When  I  saw  your  plain  state 
ments  of  facts  I  entered  your  party,  and  ever  since 
I  have  done  all  in  my  power  to  popularise  read- 
justerism." 

"  Pardon  me,  General,  I  have  never  earned  the 
degree  of  doctor.  My  brochure  was  prepared  care 
fully.  I  showed  plainly  that  during  Governor  Kem- 
per's  term  the  taxable  values  of  this  commonwealth 
approximately  were  three  hundred  million  dollars, 
and  taxes  eighteen  millions — a  burden  of  six  per 
cent.  That  great  burden  has  increased  annually. 
The  loose,  careless  manner  in  which  public  affairs 
are  administered,  together  with  the  iniquities  of  the 
Funding  Bill,  and  its  successor,  the  McCulloch 
Brokers'  Bill,  will  soon  bankrupt  this  state." 

"  Already  the  state  is  bankrupt.  Virginia's  re 
sources  have  been  exhausted  by  her  pretended 
aristocracy,  whose  leaders,  not  satisfied  with  incur 
ring  a  huge  debt  for  their  sole  benefit,  have  man 
aged  to  control  affairs  constantly  since  the  first 
settlements  were  made  along  the  James.  The  bone 
and  sinew  of  the  state,  the  plain  people,  have  been 


THE    BETRAYAL  97 

robbed  of  opportunity  as  well  as  stimulation  to  ef 
fort.  Now  they  have  to  bear  taxes  greater  than 
their  incomes  that  money  insufficient  even  to  pay 
the  interest  upon  the  aristocratic  debt  may  be  raised. 
It  was  to  prevent  these  conditions  that  Thomas  Jef 
ferson  fought  for  a  democracy.  He  lost  his  fight." 

"  May  God  be  merciful  in  meting  out  justice  to 
them."  - 

The  parson  had  heard  that  General  Murphy 
never  made  long  speeches.  "  You  have  not  fooled 
me,"  he  thought;  "there  was  no  revealment  there. 
Yet  possibly  you  really  did  lay  bare  your  opin 
ions,  ca/ried  away  by  hatred  of  the  aristocracy. 
Maybe  that  which  I  heard  meant  that  you  had 
much  to  say,  yet  said  nothing.  Intangible,  elusive !  " 

"The  mass  of  the  people  idolise  you,  Dr. — Mr. 
Jones,  and  would  welcome  a  movement  aided  by 
you  to  relieve  the  present  precarious  situation.  The 
plain  farmers  pay  the  taxes;  those  self-moulded 
shapes  of  superior  clay  fill  the  offices — the  offices 
that  they  will  leave  to  their  worthless  sons." 

"  I  was  induced  to  enter  the  political  arena  and 
temporarily  to  lay  aside  my  ministerial  duties  by  the 
crying  need  of  the  toilers.  My  sympathy  is  with  the 
men  that  work.  They  must  have  relief.  They  shall 
not  be  compelled  to  suffer  because  of  financial  con 
ditions  brought  about  by  a  government  in  which 
they  have  had  no  part.  Vice  is  the  offspring  of  pov 
erty.  My  duty  to  my  God — my  life,  General,  is 
dedicated  to  Him — must  begin  in  relieving  bodily 
distress,  for  that  is  the  base  of  this  spiritual  and 
physical  unrest.  I  have  been  told,  General  Murphy, 
that  you  seek  to  serve  God  by  improving  the  social 
condition  of  the  working  people,  that  you  intend  to 


98  THE    BETRAYAL 

improve  their  political  condition  by  giving  a  real 
voice  in  government  to  them,  and  by  electing  and 
appointing  them  to  public  office.  I  am  in  sympathy 
with  your  plans.  But  I  shall  serve  God  in  a  differ 
ent  way — by  providing  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of 
His  people  after  their  physical  wants  have  been  re 
lieved.  I  shall  insist  upon  the  establishment  of  a 
great  public  school  system,  that  every  boy  and  every 
girl  shall  have  the  opportunity  to  receive  a  thorough 
education." 

"  I  am  in  sympathy  with  your  plans — wholly  so — 
and  I  shall  do  all  in  my  power  to  aid  you  in  carrying 
them  into  effect.  One  of  the  great  crimes  of  the 
aristocracy  is  denial  of  public  education.  The  so- 
called  gentry  will  oppose  you  bitterly.  But  you  will 
win.  Their  threadbare  argument  that  there  is  no 
more  obligation  on  the  part  of  the  government  to 
give  an  education  to  the  people  than  to  give  them 
food  and  clothes  will  not  be  respected  in  coming 
elections.  Paternalism?  That  is  the  cloak  that 
covers  many  political  crimes.  Our  government  is 
monarchical.  The  king  must  not  be  paternal,  yet  his 
subjects  are  his  children  only  when  their  father  is  to 
be  supported.  Affection  is  not  known  to  this  kingly 
breast." 

The  parson  was  perplexed.  Was  this  Tim  Mur 
phy?  No,  this  was  Murphy  the  master  of  men, 
who  was  ever  the  reflection  of  the  person  that  he 
would  dominate.  And  the  parson  knew  that  he  felt 
quite  sure  that  Murphy's  appeal  to  him  had  not  been 
in  vain.  Here  was  a  man  that  he  believed  to  be 
unscrupulous,  who  would  use  truth  to  fight  truth 
as  he  would  use  that  weapon  to  fight  iniquity. 
Was  this  man  safe?  Should  he  be  placed  in  power? 


THE     BETRAYAL  99 

Now  was  the  accepted  time  when  Jones,  a  poor 
preacher,  could  make  or  break  Murphy,  a  military 
hero.  Could  Jones  break  Murphy  later?  The 
parson  thought  not.  And  there  sat  that  wily  old 
dog  reading  every  thought  that  passed  through  the 
poor  preacher's  mind.  Well,  let  him ! 

"  I  thank  you,  Mr.  Jones,  for  your  confidence  in 
me.  That  I  shall  never  abuse  that  confidence  it  is 
unnecessary  for  me  to  add." 

The  parson  let  it  go  at  that. 

"  Now  that  the  Readjuster  party  is  formally  or 
ganised,  Mr.  Jones,  we  should  increase  its  strength 
in  every  way  possible.  If  we  can  induce  some  young 
aristocrats  to  espouse  our  cause  the  opposition  will 
have  been  struck  a  fatal  blow." 

"  So  I  have  thought,  General.  We  shall  need 
their  oratory  as  well  as  their  influence  in  the  cam 
paign." 

"  Captain  Temple  says  that  he  intends  openly  to 
advocate  pur  ticket." 

"That  is  good  news.  I  have  in  mind  another 
young  man  of  splendid  qualities,  with  whom  I  have 
been  corresponding.  I  sent  him  a  copy  of  my  '  Debts 
and  Taxes,'  which  convinced  him  that  a  readjust 
ment  of  the  debt  is  necessary.  In  every  way  he  is 
Temple's  superior." 

"  May  I  ask  to  whom  you  refer?  " 

'  John  Randolph  Harrison." 

Murphy,  of  course,  had  heard  of  Harrison's  War- 
renton  speech,  and  had  laid  his  plans  accordingly. 

"  Good !  A  son  of  the  late  Judge  John  Ran 
dolph  Harrison?" 

'Yes;  and  judging  from  the  young  man's  letters 
he  is  a  worthy  successor  to  his  honoured  father." 


TOO  THE    BETRAYAL 

"  I  shall  ask  him  to  call  on  me.'* 

"  It  would  be  better  for  the  suggestion  to  come 
from  me,  as  already  correspondence  between  us 
has  been  established.  I  shall  write  to  him  immedi 
ately." 

The  parson  wished  Murphy  to  understand  that  he 
had  added  Harrison  to  the  campaign  stock. 

The  general  made  up  his  mind  to  use  Jones  and 
Harrison  for  the  time.  Later  he  would  arrange 
to  pit  them  against  each  other  in  the  Readjuster 
convention,  which  would  be  called  to  nominate  a 
candidate  for  governor,  with  the  result  that  a  pup 
pet  of  his  would  receive  the  nomination.  Thus 
Jones  and  Harrison  would  be  obliged  to  support 
the  Murphy  candidate. 

The  parson  looked  at  his  watch  when  he  had  fin 
ished  the  letter. 

"  I  shall  be  glad  to  have  you  stay  and  take  supper 
and  pass  the  night  with  me." 

"I  thank  you,  General;  but  I  have  promised  to 
take  supper  with  Brother  Roberts  and  to  pass  the 
night  with  Brother  Burgess." 

The  parson  took  his  leave. 

That  a  great  general  shall  not  despise  his  antag 
onist  was  a  military  law  that  the  enemy  had  taught 
to  Murphy  when  he  was  a  soldier.  He  did  not  de 
spise  the  parson,  but  he  had  no  love  for  him.  Now 
his  emotions  were  varied. 

"  Bah,  the  old  hypocrite!  So  that  is  one  of  God's 
angels — a  Baptist  angel !  .  .  .  All  the  social  elect 
are  Episcopalians.  Sometimes  a  Presbyterian  does 
shove  his  head  through  the  window  of  the  aristo 
cratic  temple;  but  the  Episcopalian  is  a  Simon  pure 


THE    BETRAYAL  101 

gentleman.  Pish!  .  .  .  But  why  should  that  old 
rogue  be  a  Baptist  when  he  might  be  an  Episco 
palian?  I  know!  A  candidate  for  the  Episcopalian 
ministry  must  be  a  gentleman,  and  the  son  of  a  gen 
tleman.  An  examining  board  first  studies  the  appli 
cant's  family  tree — then  looks  into  his  heart.  Bah! 
.  .  .  Bah!" 

A  few  days  after  the  interview  between  Parson 
Jones  and  General  Murphy  John  Harrison  climbed 
the  rickety  stairs  that  led  to  the  general's  office. 

*  This  is  a  great  pleasure,  Mr.  Harrison.  Your 
father  has  crossed  the  Great  River,  where  I  shall 
soon  meet  him.  My  dear  old  friend !  My  dear  old 
friend!  But  now  I  see  him  in  you.  We  parents 
find  our  greatest  grief  in  having  to  close  our  lives 
before  we  can  see  our  sons  and  daughters  fully  de 
veloped.  I  wish  that  he  could  have  lived  a  few 
more  years." 

Already  prepared  to  like  this  brave  former  Con 
federate  soldier,  John  Harrison  was  strongly  drawn 
to  him  now  that  he  knew  that  his  beloved  father 
had  been  a  friend  of  the  hero  of  the  Crater. 

General  Murphy  had  never  met  Judge  Harri 
son. 

"  I  was  glad  to  hear  Parson  Jones  say  that  you 
are  considering  the  advisability  of  entering  politics. 
Your  gift  of  oratory  in  itself  is  sufficient  to  make 
your  political  career  one  of  great  usefulness.  The 
offices  are  in  the  hands  of  incompetents.  Ability  as 
well  as  honesty,  Mr.  Harrison,  is  required  in  gov 
ernment.  Only  a  few  men  are  dishonest.  Cer 
tainly  no  one  class  can  claim  a  monopoly  of  the 
virtues,  nor  can  any  one  political  party  be  accused  of 


102  THE     BETRAYAL 

all  that  is  evil.  Readjusters  do  not  seek  office  for 
reward;  but  they  are  willing  to  serve  their  country 
as  a  patriotic  duty." 

"  Mr.  Jones  thinks  that  the  only  way  to  save  the 
commonwealth  is  to  inform  the  people  of  actual 
facts,  and  to  publish  figures  broadcast." 

"  Undoubtedly  he  is  right,  and  his  plan  to  canvass 
the  state  is  excellent.  Moreover,  he  declares  that  he 
has  no  wish  to  go  back  to  the  Senate  with  a  hopeless 
minority.  This  campaign  must  be  educational.  Mr. 
Jones  agrees  with  me  in  that  as  in  all  other  matters 
that  we  discussed." 

The  general  paused.  Now  was  the  time  to  award 
the  prize,  although  he  knew  that  the  young  man 
sought  compensation  in  no  form.  Nevertheless,  the 
aristocrat  would  accept  a  suitable  reward. 

"  I  realise  fully,  Mr.  Harrison,  that  you  will  be 
severely  criticised  and  perhaps  even  ostracised  by 
your  friends  when  you  advocate  the  readjustment 
of  the  debt,  but  the  time  will  soon  come  when  your 
critics  will  be  forced  to  follow  your  true  leadership. 
I  predict  that  in  time  you  will  win  the  hearts  of  all, 
that  you  will  be  accepted  as  Virginia's  foremost 
citizen  and  her  most  constructive  statesman.  A 
stern  duty  awaits  you :  a  glorious  achievement  will 
be  your  reward.  The  man  who  can  do  most  to  save 
Virginia's  honour  is  you  yourself." 

As  Harrison  was  thoughtful  the  leader  continued, 
feeling  his  way  carefully: 

'  This  may  seem  an  exaggeration  to  you,  Mr. 
Harrison,  as  you  are  still  a  young  man;  but  I  see  in 
you  those  qualities  of  statesmanship  that  made  your 
honoured  father  so  widely  renowned.  There  is  a 
further  reward  always  for  a  young  man  in  work  of 


THE    BETRAYAL  103 

this  kind:  political  honours  are  within  your  reach — * 
the  United  States  senatorship,  for  instance." 

John  Harrison  drew  back  rather  haughtily. 

"  No  such  motive  could  influence  me." 

"  Of  course  I  know  that.  I  merely  meant  to  indi 
cate  that  the  higher  the  office  that  a  man  administers 
the  greater  his  power  for  good." 

"  I  do  not  mean  that  I  am  unwilling  to  serve  Vir 
ginia  in  any  office  that  I  am  qualified  to  hold;  but  I 
wish  every  man  to  know  that  I  shall  never  accept  one 
cent  of  pay  or  reward  in  any  form  for  any  service 
that  I  shall  have  the  honour  to  render  to  Virginia  in 
private  or  in  public  life." 

A  dangerous  man,  thought  Murphy;  but  he  did 
not  pause. 

"  The  first  great  need  is  to  settle  the  debt  under 
some  arrangement  satisfactory  to  our  creditors.  I 
have  several  plans,  but  I  wish  thoroughly  to  discuss 
these  with  my  advisers — Mr.  Jones,  you,  and  others. 
My  Mozart  Hall  speech  was  made  at  a  time  when 
my  plans  were  embryonic." 

"  My  confidence  in  you  is  complete,  General  Mur 
phy.  I  believe  that  you  will  settle  the  debt  to  the 
lasting  honour  of  this  country.  I  have  a  plan  of  my 
own  which  I  wish  to  submit  to  you — this :  we  should 
have  our  legislators  meet  representatives  of  the  bond 
holders,  explain  to  them  the  actual  conditions  that 
now  exist  in  Virginia,  then  offer  a  settlement  accept 
able  to  them.  I  believe  that  the  bondholders  will 
meet  us  half  way,  if  not  farther,  if  we  convince  them 
that  we  propose  to  pay  every  dollar  of  the  debt  in 
money,  in  instalments,  with  full  interest.  I  suggest 
that  we  make  the  following  offer:  Virginia  to  sus 
pend  payment  on  the  debt — principal  and  interest — 


104  THE    BETRAYAL 

for  ten  years;  the  principal,  and  the  interest  that  will 
have  accrued  in  the  ten  years,  to  be  funded  now; 
bonds  to  be  issued  now  for  the  entire  debt  as  newly 
funded;  the  bonds  to  bear  interest  at  six  per  cent., 
payable  yearly;  the  bonds  to  be  paid  within  fifty 
years,  at  the  rate  of  one-fiftieth  part  each  year.  Vir 
ginia  is  dying  of  starvation.  She  is  unable  to  pay  a 
cent  of  her  debt  now.  She  will  pay  it  all  under  my 
plan — or  some  other  proper  settlement  that  will  af 
ford  her  both  immediate  and  permanent  relief." 

For  a  while  the  leader  seemed  to  be  in  deep 
thought. 

"Excellent;  indeed  excellent!  Your  plan  is  the 
most  workable  one  that  has  been  suggested  to  me. 
It  is  not  necessary  for  you  or  for  any  one  in  our 
party  to  formulate  a  definite  course  to  be  submitted 
to  the  bondholders  until  after  election.  The  final 
settlement  is  a  matter  that  will  have  to  be  discussed 
with  the  utmost  frankness,  and  such  a  discussion  at 
this  time  would  jeopardise  our  chances  of  success  and 
possibly  postpone  an  honourable  adjustment  of  the 
debt  in  a  way  that  would  relieve  the  people  of  ex 
cessive  taxation  and  still  be  honourable — say  a  plan 
to  build  up  our  resources.  I  believe  success  awaits 
our  movement." 

"  I  am  convinced  that  the  plan  is  feasible,  General, 
and  I  shall  say  to  the  people  of  this  country  what  I 
have  already  said  to  you.  From  now  until  the 
polls  close  I  shall  devote  all  my  time  to  the  Read- 
juster  party." 

As  John  Harrison  made  his  way  to  the  train  he 
knew  that  his  great  fight  would  be  with  himself,  and 
not  with  his  friends  who  were  now  his  enemies.  Not 


THE     BETRAYAL  105 

only  had  Virginia  asked  him  to  surrender  Lelia 
Braxton,  but  she  had  also  asked  him  to  bear  the 
intolerable  thought  that  the  girl  that  he  loved,  this 
girl  who  held  honour  in  higher  esteem  than  any 
other  human  element,  possibly  might  believe  her 
lover,  a  Harrison,  to  be  so  base  as  to  sell  his  birth 
right  and  her  love  for  a  mess  of  political  pottage. 


CHAPTER  THREE 

JOE  MILLER,  peasant,  stage-driver  and  mail- 
carrier,     delivered     a     package    to     Colonel 
Daingerfield,  then  stood  before  him,  hat  in 
hand. 

"What  is  it,  Joe?" 

"  Cunnel,  suh,  I've  been  a-thinkin'  as  how  Mary's 
a  mighty  likely  gyurl." 

"  What !  take  Mrs.  Daingerfield's  semptress  away 
from  her?  Never  will  Mrs.  Daingerfield  give  Mary 
Scott  away !  No,  Joe ;  we  want  Mary  for  ourselves." 

Mary  Scott's  parents,  peasants,  died  when  she  was 
twelve  years  old.  She  had  been  taken  into  the  Dain 
gerfield  household,  for  the  Scotts  had  been  Dainger 
field  tenants  for  more  than  two  hundred  years.  Now 
an  expert  sempstress,  she  loved  her  benefactors,  and 
in  turn  she  was  loved  by  them. 

The  young  man  waited  respectfully,  knowing  that 
the  colonel  was  not  done. 

"  The  girl  is  not  old  enough  to  marry — a  mere 
child,  barely  fifteen,  I  should  say." 

"  Beggirv'  your  pardin,  suh,  I  'lowed  as  how  she 
be  runnin  '  over  eighteen  last  month  gone  by." 

"  Bless  my  soul,  I  believe  that  you  are  right,  Joe ! 
But  you  are  a  mere  lad.  You  are  not  old  enough 
for  Mary." 

'"  Beggin'  your  pardin,  suh,  I  wus  a  man  yist'day, 
free-white-an'-twenty-one,  an'  I  'low  as  I'm  a  man, 
beggin'  your  pardin,  suh,  a  six-foot  man." 

1 06 


THE    BETRAYAL  107 

"  Joe,  I  am  older  than  I  thought.  God  bless  me, 
how  time  has  flown !  " 

"  I  done  some  mo'  'lowin',  beggin'  your  pardin, 
suh." 

"Well,  Joe?" 

"  I  done  'lowed  as  how  you  knowed  I  wus 
a-lookin'  at  Mary  when  you  done  got  me  the  mail- 
carrin'  job.  I  hates  to  take  Mary  away;  but,  beggin' 
your  pardin',  suh,  I've  worked  for  her  mor'n  four 
year,  an'  now  I  'lows  as  I  ken  take  care  of  her — 
an'  anything  as  comes  our  way." 

"Yes,  yes,  Joe;  the  Millers  always  were  thrifty. 
The  Daingerfields  never  had  better  tenants  than  the 
Millers.  Virginia  would  not  be  brought  to  this  pass 
if  there  were  more  peasants  like  the  Millers  and 
the  Scotts  and  more  yeomen  like  the  Whites  and  the 
Christians.  But  I  hate  to  tell  Mrs.  Daingerfield 
that  you  are  going  to  take  Mary  away  from  her, 
Joe." 

'Thankee,  suh;  thankee  kindly." 

The  day  after  Joe  Miller  told  Colonel  Dainger 
field  his  thoughts  of  Mary  Scott,  Hugh  White, 
yeoman,  after  his  day's  work  was  done,  called  on 
Lucy  Christian,  daughter  of  a  yeoman  freeholder. 

The  Whites  had  been   Braxton  tenants  in  Eng- 

^ 

land  as  well  as  in  Virginia.  When  Hugh  White's 
father  was  killed  at  Malvern  Hill  his  young  wife 
and  little  Hugh  were  left  penniless.  Federal  sol 
diers  added  to  the  young  widow's  distress  by  burn 
ing  her  home  and  borrowing  her  cows  and  fowls, 
which  they  failed  to  return.  The  judge  went  to 
her  rescue  as  soon  as  he  heard  of  her  husband's 
death,  rebuilt  her  home  immediately  after  the  war, 


io8  THE    BETRAYAL 

and  supported  her  child  and  herself  meanwhile. 
After  the  Surrender  Mrs.  White  would  accept  no 
assistance  other  than  rent,  which  the  judge  would 
not  permit  her  to  pay.  One  day  the  manly  little 
Hugh  went  to  him  and  said  that  he  could  support 
his  mother,  for  he  was  twelve  years  old.  The  mother 
and  son  had  supported  themselves  since  that  time. 

Lucy  Christian's  father  was  prosperous  and  her 
mother  thrifty.  The  eldest  of  twelve  children,  yet 
only  seventeen,  she  went  frequently  to  help  dear  Mrs. 
White  with  her  household  duties,  although  the  young 
girl  was  her  mother's  right-hand  in  the  care  of  her 
large  family.  Yes,  Mrs.  White  and  Lucy  became 
fast  friends,  while  Mr.  Christian  frequently  said 
that  Hugh  would  make  some  girl  a  fine  husband 
some  day.  Lucy  agreed  with  her  father. 

The  time  came  when  Hugh  looked  intently,  then 
timidly,  into  Lucy's  face, — Lucy  his  pretty  playmate, 
and  then  he  did  not  go  near  her  for  two  weeks.  The 
stars  were  out  the  next  time  that  he  saw  her.  He 
had  called  on  her  formally  for  the  first  time  in  his 
life.  The  parlour  had  not  been  used  for  ten  years, 
for  the  parlour  in  the  Virginian  yeoman's  home  is  a 
holy  place,  a  shrine  held  sacred  to  some  unknown 
deity.  Gentle  reader,  your  narrators  are  unable  to 
tell  you  the  origin  of  the  Virginian  yeoman  parlour. 
Hugh  and  Lucy  sat  in  the  parlour  that  night,  speech 
less  almost,  and  unconscious  of  their  musty  surround 
ings.  In  time  Hugh  was  treated  with  less  ceremony. 
The  kitchen  was  surrendered  to  him  at  nine  o'clock, 
when  the  entire  Christian  family,  except  Lucy,  went 
to  bed. 

Hugh,  now  twenty  years  old,  had  been  sitting  in 
the  Christian  kitchen  six  nights  during  each  week 


THE     BETRAYAL  109 

for  three  years  when  he  called  to  see  Lucy,  the  day 
after  Joe  Miller  saw  Colonel  Daingerfield.  The 
young  farmer  would  have  called  seven  nights  in  each 
week  had  he  been  permitted;  but  Virginian  yeomen 
had  an  unwritten  law,  which  your  narrators  will 
whisper  to  you,  gentle  reader:  Saturday  night  with 
them  was  wash-night,  when  no  visitor  was  admitted 
to  the  yeoman  home. 

"  I  saw  Joe  Miller  this  morning.  Mary  Scott  is 
going  to  marry  him." 

"  I  wouldn't  marry  any  man.  Mary  isn't  in  my 
class;  Joe  isn't  in  your  class.  I  wouldn't  marry  any 
man." 

Many  times  had  pretty  Lucy  said  that  she  would 
never  marry  any  man,  and  each  time  that  she  had 
so  declared  her  purpose  to  the  sturdy  yeoman  she 
had  effectually  silenced  him,  for  he  did  not  have 
enough  courage  to  continue  his  love-making  under 
conditions  so  adverse.  But  Joe's  news  had  fortified 
him.  Possibly  Lucy  was  mistaken. 

"  Mother  says  that  Judge  Braxton  says  that  you 
and  I  ought  to  get  married." 

Strange  to  say,  no  word  did  Lucy  speak,  but  she 
sat  with  her  soft  cheek  in  her  hand,  looking  at  the 
floor,  trying  to  hide  the  light  that  was  in  her  eyes. 
However,  Lucy  had  not  received  a  proposal  of  mar 
riage.  The  terms  of  proposal  among  yeomen  were 
clearly  defined  and  exactly  interpreted,  as  Hugh  did 
not  know,  and  as  Lucy  knew  full  well.  "  I  ask  you 
to  marry  me?  Be  my  wife?"  Those  questions  had 
to  be  asked,  or  others  quite  as  definite.  It  was  not 
enough  to  say  "  I  love  you,"  although  the  man  was 
committed  when  he  spoke  those  words.  A  kiss  was 
not  enough;  yet  the  man  was  committed  by  a  kiss. 


no  THE    BETRAYAL 

"  I'll  be  going  now." 

As  the  bold  lover  walked  toward  his  home  he  felt 
that  he  had  made  substantial  progress  in  his  suit. 
Lucy  thought  so  too. 

Not  until  the  knell-like  gong  of  the  old  mahogany 
cabinet  clock  that  Sir  William  Braxton  had  erected 
in  the  great  hall  of  Morven  had  sounded  the  hour 
of  four  did  the  guests  at  Lelia  Braxton's  ball  take 
their  leave.  As  Virginians  in  the  early  days  arrived 
at  a  ball  with  the  stars,  also  they  went  home  by 
daylight. 

Lelia  Braxton  had  gone  to  her  room  immediately 
upon  the  departure  of  the  last  guest;  but  not  to 
sleep,  for  she  knew  that  sleep  for  her  was  impossible. 
"What  have  I  done?  What  have  I  done?  "  The 
words  burned  through  her  brain  as  only  fire  can  burn 
that  is  fed  by  fuel  regret. 

The  light-hearted  girl  of  yesterday  was  now  a 
woman.  The  unknowing  love  of  an  innocent  maiden, 
untried  by  sorrow,  in  a  few  hours  had  grown  old. 
Her  blood  surged  wildly.  She  felt  that  her  head  as 
well  as  her  heart  would  break.  What  had  she  done, 
in  her  unthinking,  selfish  way?  Was  her  love  so  poor 
a  thing  that  she  could  desert  her  lover  in  his  hour 
of  need?  Was  her  love  so  selfish  and  so  weak  as  to 
be  unable  to  bear  the  few  burdens  that  had  been  put 
upon  it?  Oh,  what  must  John  think  of  her!  He 
had  been  defamed.  He  had  been  treated  in  a  way 
that  must  have  cut  him  deeply.  Had  she  defended 
him,  with  eyes  blazing  like  those  of  some  Fury?  No. 
no,  no!  Not  only  had  she  failed  to  slay  his  enemies 
with  devastating  eyes,  but  her  anger,  her  selfish 
anger,  had  been  poured  out  upon  him.  Had  she 


THE    BETRAYAL  in 

not  been  far  more  cruel  than  the  harshest  of  his 
critics? 

She  flung  herself  upon  her  bed;  she  got  up  and 
walked  the  room ;  then  she  sat  by  her  window,  which 
she  had  raised,  to  let  in  the  early  morning  air.  After 
a  while  she  lit  a  candle.  Its  light  fell  on  John  Har 
rison's  photograph.  She  snatched  it  up.  She  kissed 
it  passionately.  She  had  never  kissed  it  before,  she 
had  never  kissed  her  lover — except  his  hand  that  one 
time.  Now  she  kissed  his  eyes,  his  beautiful  eyes, 
that  so  tenderly  gazed  out  of  the  picture  into  her 
own.  She  kissed  his  lips;  she  rubbed  his  cheek,  now 
tenderly,  now  passionately,  over  her  soft  face.  Cry? 
She  could  not  cry!  She  could  never  cry  again.  Her 
fountain  of  tears  had  been  for  her  youth,  the  youth 
that  stretched  away  back  into  the  distance — her  youth 
that  had  gone  for  ever.  Oh,  oh !  what  must  John 
have  thought  of  her?  He  must  despise  her.  But 
could  he  despise  her  more  than  she  despised  herself? 
How  she  hated  that  self.  She  had  been  a  living  lie. 
He  could  never  have  loved  her  had  he  seen  her  as 
she  really  was.  But  now  he  saw  her  in  all  her  awful 
selfishness.  A  great  dry  sob  made  its  way  from  her 
throat. 

But  no,  he  had  not  seen  her  as  she  was.  He  had 
tried  to  explain  to  her,  and — she  would  not  listen. 
Yes,  he  had  seen  through  her  miserable  self.  Had 
he  not  said  to  her  that  her  faith  in  him  should  be 
second  only  to  her  faith  in  God?  Had  he  not  tried 
to  shield  her  that  she  might  not  be  hurt  by  her  own 
cruel  words  and  by  the  words  and  conduct  of  others? 

Her  passionate  outburst  spent  itself  through  its 
own  violence.  When  the  grey  dawn  began  to  glow 
with  the  faint  red  of  the  rising  sun  she  became 


ii2  THE     BETRAYAL 

calmer  and  began  to  see  the  situation  in  its  true  pro 
portions.  She  smiled  wanly  as  she  thought  of  the 
lines  that  she  had  read  that  morning — no,  yesterday 
morning — in  the  copy  of  Tennyson  that  John  had 
given  to  her  for  a  birthday  present — 

"Is  it  so  true  that  second  thoughts  are  best? 
Not  first,  and  third,  which  are  a  riper  first?" 

She  had  been  right, — not  that  her  conduct  had  been 
right,  for  how  could  she  have  been  so  cruel  to 
John?  But  in  a  large  way  she  had  been  right.  Her 
first  duty  was  to  Virginia,  not  to  her  lover.  Strong 
as  well  as  honourable,  John  Harrison  had  given  up 
his  life-work  in  the  practice  of  the  law;  even  more, 
he  had  abandoned  his  social  position  to  become  the 
associate  of  thieves — yes,  even  the  associate  of  ne 
groes.  He  had  given  his  proud  name  to  be  the 
scorn  of  decent  people,  to  be  bandied  about  by 
thieves,  who  would  laugh  at  him  derisively — all  this 
he  had  given  to  Virginia.  He  had  been  willing  even 
to  give  back  to  the  woman  he  loved  her  troth  and 
to  bear  the  full  force  of  her  condemnation. 

A  king  loved  her !  Would  she  prove  unworthy 
of  his  love?  At  least  she  would  try  not  to  be  un 
worthy.  She  too  would  give  to  Virginia  all  that  she 
possessed.  Virginia  had  nothing  but  honour  left  to 
her.  That  honour  Lelia  Braxton  would  cherish.  In 
time  the  truth  would  come  to  him.  Then  this  guile 
less  man,  who  saw  the  beautiful  and  none  of  the 
evil  in  all  things,  would  see  that  good  can  not  come 
out  of  evil,  that  his  country  no  more  than  himself 
could  be  a  bankrupt.  Yes,  she  would  pray  to  God  to 
give  her  the  strength  to  take  back  the  troth  that  she 
had  given  to  John  Harrison,  that  she  keep  it  for 


THE    BETRAYAL  113 

him  until  no  wall  of  dishonour  should  separate  them. 
Thus  she  would  be  true  to  him  as  well  as  to  Virginia. 
But  never  again  would  she  wound  him. 

Ah,  how  he  loved  her!  Once  he  had  said  to  her, 
—she  had  not  understood  him  then, — "  Lelia,  there 
is  one  joy  that  I  can  never  know.  It  is  true  that  love 
is  made  of  two  elements,  pain  and  rapture.  There 
is  suffering  in  love's  rapture;  there  is  ecstasy  in  love's 
sorrow.  Sometimes  I  think  that  in  only  one  way  did 
Jesus  have  greater  rapture  in  His  love  than  I  have 
in  mine — He  descended  into  hell,  and  there  suffered 
three  days  for  those  that  He  loved.  Lelia,  I  wish 
that  I  could  suffer  all  the  tortures  of  hell  for  your 
sake."  "  Don't  be  sacrilegious,"  she  had  said,  and 
he  had  replied,  "  I  did  not  mean  to  be  sacrilegious." 

Going  to  the  window  overlooking  the  garden  she 
saw  Judge  Braxton  strolling  among  the  flowers  in 
the  early  morning  hour,  as  though  he  too  had  been 
unable  to  sleep.  He  carried  in  his  hand  a  copy  of 
his  translation  of  Homer's  poems,  which  had  been 
published  many  years  before.  For  some  time  he  had 
been  writing  a  commentary  on  that  author,  to  be 
prefaced  by  a  critical  study  of  the  values  of  the  great 
singer,  in  which  he  would  show  the  elements  of  unity 
in  the  Homeric  poems.  He  was  deep  in  thought. 
"  Is  he  thinking  of  me  or  of  his  work?"  thought 
Lelia.  "  Is  he  trying  to  find  some  way  to  save 
John?"  Yes,  he  was  thinking  of  her,  for  he  fastened 
a  spray  of  her  favourite  flower,  the  lily-of-the-valley, 
in  the  lapel  of  his  coat. 

In  a  few  minutes  she  had  placed  her  hand  in  his. 

As  he  turned  to  her  there  was  the  great  light  of 
fatherhood  in  his  eyes.  Many  years  later,  when 
Lelia  Braxton  gazed  at  Hofmann's  painting  of 


ii4  THE    BETRAYAL 

Christ  at  Gethsemane,  she  thought  of  her  father  as 
he  had  stood  in  the  Morven  garden  that  early  morn 
ing,  the  love  and  suffering  of  Hofmann's  Shepherd 
on  his  face. 

The  father's  love  is  greater  than  the  mother's  as 
his  strength  is  greater  than  hers.  Christ,  not  Mary, 
is  the  embodiment  of  parental  love. 

Father  and  daughter  were  silent  for  a  while. 
When  Judge  Braxton  spoke  his  firm  voice  was  un 
usually  tender.  Now  Lelia  Braxton  saw.  She  never 
had  seen  before.  Formerly  she  had  accepted  merely 
the  outward  and  visible  signs  of  love;  but  now  she 
saw  and  felt  the  deep  significance  of  its  inward  and 
spiritual  grace.  There  had  been  one  great  flash, 
and  her  whole  being  had  become  illuminated.  It 
was  as  if  God  had  said  in  the  darkness  of  chaos, 
"  Let  there  be  light."  Whence  came  this  change, 
this  great  white  light?  Was  it  from  God,  was  it 
from  John,  or  had  it  always  burned  within  her, 
hidden  by  the  measure  ego?  She  could  not  say. 
She  only  knew  that  it  flooded  her  whole  being.  Oh, 
that  he  had  not  seen  her  real  self!  Not  for  the 
treasure  of  limitless  worlds  would  she  bare  her  soul 
to  her  lover.  He  might  read  all  the  mysteries  that 
he  could  fathom,  but  never  should  he  know  the  one 
great  mystery,  herself — the  creature  I  AM. 

Lelia  Braxton  did  not  know  that  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  honest  self-revealment.  She  did  not  know 
that  no  man  is  willing  to  know  himself,  that  no 
woman  is  willing  to  know  herself,  that  still  less  are 
men  and  women  willing  for  others  to  know  them. 
The  one  great  mystery  that  we  pass  our  lives  in 
trying  to  fathom  is  the  unknowable  human  being. 

"  Daughter,  I  like  John  Harrison  more  than  any 


THE    BETRAYAL  115 

young  man  that  I  know.  Until  yesterday  I  had 
thought  that  I  should  like  to  see  your  life  and  his 
joined  in  the  holiest  of  human  relations.  There 
may  not  be  many  years  left  to  me.  My  child,  I 
am  unwilling  to  say  that  a  single  error  should  sep 
arate  you  from  the  man  that  you  love.  I  am  un 
willing  to  say  that  you  should  marry  a  man  that  is 
making  so  grievous  a  mistake  as  John  Harrison.  I 
shall  accept  your  decision,  whatever  it  shall  be,  and 
should  you  change  your  views,  I  shall  still  trust  your 
instinct.  I  shall  uphold  you  always.  Come  to  me 
for  sympathy  when  your  burdens  seem  too  hard  for 
you  to  bear.  .  .  .  But  whatever  your  course,  I 
shall  not  condone  his  offences.  There  is  a  wall  that 
can  not  be  scaled.  It  separates  the  acts  of  honour 
from  those  of  dishonour.  A  man  can  not  be  sepa 
rated  from  his  conduct.  That  law  is  inviolable. 

"  And,  my  little  girl,  a  woman  follows  her  hus 
band.  She  becomes  a  part  of  him.  True,  they  lose 
their  identity  in  each  other;  but  the  new  being  is 
dominated  by  the  force  of  the  man,  a  force  that 
changes  form,  but  which  is  never  lost  in  amalgama 
tion.  Remember  that  always. 

"  Harrison  is  what  he  is,  which  is  the  sum  of 
what  he  has  been,  and  of  what  his  ancestors  were. 
This  leads  me  to  hope  that  the  time  will  come  when 
the  wound  that  is  caused  by  this  error  will  be  healed. 
The  scar  will  never  disappear.  If  the  wound  be  not 
fatal, — and  I  warn  you  that  it  may  never  heal, — I 
shall  be  first  to  welcome  John  Harrison  back  to  his 
people.  Even  in  convalescence  I  shall  nurse  him 
tenderly  until  he  is  restored  to  health.  But  while 
he  is  dishonourable  I  shall  do  no  more  than  treat 
him  with  civility." 


ii6  THE    BETRAYAL 

Leila  Braxton  had  stood  with  averted  face, 
tightly  grasping  the  judge's  hand. 

"  Father,  my  heart  tells  me  that  I  ought  to  marry 
John — now;  that  I  should  be  his  comfort  when  he 
needs  me  most.  I  would  not  have  to  agree  with  his 
political  views  in  order  to  be  the  partner  of  his  bur 
dens.  My  selfish  self  says  that  I  just  must  go  to 
him,  for  how  can  I  see  my  friends  arrayed  against 
him,  father, — oh,  how  can  I?  And  in  a  way  I  shall 
be  one  of  those  that  will  bring  sorrow  and  shame 
upon  him.  Oh,  father  dear,  help  me !  Strengthen 
my  resolution — never  to  be  John's  wife  until  to 
gether  we  can  say  that  this  unholy  thing  has  been 
put  out  of  our  lives.  .  .  .  Yet  I  know  that  no 
one  could  be  more  honourable  than  John.  ...  I 
seem  to  be  a  pupil  criticising  the  great  master  that 
is  patiently  leading  him  toward  his  own  great 
heights." 

Mrs.  Braxton  now  joined  them,  basket  in  hand. 
She  had  come  into  the  garden  to  gather  jonquils  for 
the  breakfast  table.  The  judge  assisted  her.  To 
gether  they  had  culled  flowers  in  the  early  morning 
throughout  their  married  life.  The  judge  had  first 
seen  Mrs.  Braxton  as  she  cut  the  Marechal  Neil  in 
the  garden  of  her  father's  ancestral  home.  He  had 
said  to  her,  as  all  Virginian  gentlemen  of  his  period 
said  to  all  ladies  that  they  met  under  similar  cir 
cumstances,  "  Ah-h-h — 

" '  Proserpine    gathering    flowers, 
Herself  a  fairer  flower.' " 

As  soon  as  he  got  home  from  the  ball  John  Har 
rison  wrote  to  Lelia  Braxton,  then  waited  patiently 
for  his  man  Jake,  who  would  open  up  the  house  at 


THE    BETRAYAL  117 

sunrise,  in  accordance  with  Virginian  custom.  Har 
rison  too  had  turned  the  searching  light  of  self- 
analysis  upon  his  soul,  as  he  had  often  done  before, 
and  had  stood  aghast  when  he  realised  that  in  the 
supreme  moment  of  his  life  he  had  acted  like  a 
spoiled  child, 

He  thought  that  Lelia  Braxton  must  have  been 
shocked  by  his  coarse  temper.  That  he  should  have 
been  rude  to  this  gentle  girl!  Had  she  ever  been 
so  gentle  as  she  had  been  that  night?  She  had 
treated  him  as  a  mother  might  have  treated  her 
little  child,  tenderly,  shieldingly,  as  if  her  soft  arms 
would  protect  him  from  some  great  unseen  danger, 
and  he — 'had  been  brutal !  How  had  that  been  pos 
sible?  Never  had  he  been  discourteous  to  a  woman 
before. 

He  wondered  if  she  had  cried  after  all  the  guests 
had  left.  As  he  thought  of  her  in  tears,  wounded 
through  and  through  by  his  unkindness,  he  tore  up 
the  last  of  the  long  letters  that  he  had  written,  and 
wrote  another.  That,  too,  he  tore  into  shreds.  Then 
he  decided  that  he  would  write  merely  a  brief  note, 
asking  her  to  let  him  call  that  he  might  explain  that 
he  had  not  meant  all  that  he  had  said. 

"  Here,  Jake,  deliver  this  letter  to  Miss  Braxton 
just  as  soon  as  the  family  have  left  the  breakfast- 
table,  then  wait  for  an  answer." 

Mrs.  Braxton  was  not  so  unwise  as  to  attempt  to 
force  her  daughter's  confidence.  She  knew  that  a 
young  girl  does  not  seek  her  mother  when  in  deep 
distress. 

In  "  Peter  Pan  "  Mr.  Barrie  tells  us  that  a  child 
in  trouble  goes  to  his  mother. 


ii8  THE    BETRAYAL 

A  young  girl  takes  her  grief  to  God. 

Always  there  is  formality  between  mother  and 
daughter,  no  matter  how  great  their  affection  for 
each  other.  A  girl  gives  her  surface  confidences  to 
her  companions  of  her  own  age ;  she  gives  some 
what  more  of  her  confidence  to  her  father,  or  to 
some  uncle,  or  to  some  elderly  or  old  man  that  she 
has  known  long  and  well;  she  reveals  more  of  her 
self  to  her  betrothed  or  to  her  husband;  but  a 
daughter  never  makes  a  confidante  of  her  mother, 
although  the  mother  may  know  better  than  any  one 
else,  even  better  than  the  daughter  herself,  all  those 
emotions  that  ebb  and  flow  in  a  young  girl's  soul  like 
the  tides  of  the  sea.  Lelia  Braxton  loved  her  mother 
devotedly.  Mrs.  Braxton  asked  of  her  daughter  no 
more  than  that  love. 

The  family  left  the  dining-room,  Mrs.  Braxton 
hovering  near  her  daughter,  for  a  mother  is  ever 
within  call  of  her  children  that  are  in  trouble.  In 
a  few  minutes  Lelia  Braxton  said  that  she  would  go 
to  her  room.  Then  the  kiss,  the  long  kiss  upon  the 
cheek,  the  mother's  arm  around  the  daughter's  waist 
— the  kiss  that  the  mother  always  gives  the  daughter 
that  is  in  distress;  the  kiss  of  sympathy,  of  love,  of 
confidence;  the  kiss  that  is  meant  to  take  the  place 
of  those  thoughts  that  need  not  be  expressed  in 
words;  the  kiss  that  at  first  is  hesitating,  then  half- 
ashamed.  A  mother's  affection  for  her  daughter  is 
subtly  expressed,  not  in  endearing  words,  not  in  fre 
quent  physical-  demonstrations, — for  she  is  more  for 
mal  than  her  daughter's  girlhood  friends, — but  in 
the  silent  way  that  a  daughter  understands.  No  girl 
past  fourteen  ever  puts  her  arms  around  her 
mother's  neck. 


THE    BETRAYAL  119 

A  woman  never  puts  her  arms  around  the  neck 
of  any  woman. 

Miss  Braxton  found  William,  the  old  footman, 
waiting  at  her  room  door,  Harrison's  letter  in  his 
hand. 

WARRENTON,  VIRGINIA. 
Dearest — 

Forgive  me!  How  could  I  have  been  so  unkind  to  you! 
O  my  love,  my  gentle  Lelia,  what  would  I  not  give  to  bear 
the  pain  that  I  gave  you!  Please  let  me  see  you  at  once,  if 
only  for  a  few  moments.  I  wish  to  tell  you  that  I  was 
angry  with  others,  not  with  you,  that  I  was  childish,  and 
so  base  as  to  heap  upon  you,  my  love,  the  anger  that  I  felt 
for  others — my  stupid,  blind  anger. 

JOHN. 

Thursday  morning. 

After  reading  the  letter  Lelia  Braxton  sat  per 
fectly  still  for  several  minutes.  Then  she  took  up 
Harrison's  photograph.  Again  she  looked  into  his 
eyes.  Again  and  again  she  kissed  his  lips.  Again 
she  laid  the  photograph  caressingly  against  her 
cheek.  She  read  the  letter  through  several  times. 
Her  tears  fell  upon  its  pages — tears  that  she  had 
felt  that  she  could  never  shed  again.  She  rose 
with  a  start  and  went  over  to  her  desk.  She  knew 
that  her  lover  was  waiting  eagerly  for  her  reply. 

MORVEN. 
Dear  John: 

Do  you  remember  that  you  once  said  to  me  that  love  is 
made  of  pain  and  rapture?  Do  you  remember  that  day, 
dear?  You  had  just  been  reading  aloud  The  Sonnets 
from  the  Portuguese  to  me.  Every  word  that  you  ut- 


120  THE    BETRAYAL 

tered  burned  into  my  heart.  I  shall  remember  those  words 
always:  "  Sometimes  I  think  that  in  only  one  way  did 
Jesus  have  greater  rapture  in  His  love  than  I  have  in  mine — 
He  descended  into  hell,  and  there  suffered  three  days  for 
those  that  He  loved.  Lelia," — how  softly  you  said  Lelia, 
dear, — "  I  wish  that  I  could  suffer  all  the  tortures  of  hell 
for  your  sake."  Your  letter  fills  me  with  rapture — and 
pain.  In  shielding  me,  John,  you  did  not  notice  my  cruel 
words.  I  am  unworthy  of  your  love.  I  know  that  I  am. 

Now  I  must  hurt  you  again.  I  must  ask  you  to  give  me 
back  my  troth.  For  you  are  wrong,  dear  John — you  who 
would  die  and  suffer  humiliation  and  shame  for  Virginia — • 
you  do  not  see  that  one  may  not  stoop  to  dishonour  to 
attain  some  great  and  good  end.  But  I  know  why  you  do 
not  see  the  way — I  know!  Your  great,  noble  heart  pleads 
for  tens  of  thousands  of  widows  that  have  struggled  for  four 
teen  years  to  keep  themselves  and  their  children  from  starva 
tion.  You  see  ruin  everywhere.  I  know,  John  dear,  I 
see  through  your  eyes — I  seem  never  to  have  seen  your  eyes, 
John,  until  to-day. 

You  must  give  me  back  my  troth.  I  shall  wear  your 
ring  always — you  will  let  me  keep  that,  I  know, — but  with 
this  letter  our  engagement  is  at  an  end. 

And  now  I  must  pass  out  of  your  life.  I  can  not  see  you 
again. 

Sincerely  yours, 

LELIA  BRAXTON. 

Thursday  morning. 


In  less  than  a  month  from  the  time  that  Captain 
Lancaster,  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  married  a  peas 
ant,  he  entered  the  Virginian  army.  Despite  his 
youth  he  won  the  rank  of  captain  in  the  Mexican 
War.  He  was  with  the  British  forces  throughout 
the  Crimean  campaign,  and  when  he  heard  Lord 
Cardigan's  order  at  Balaklava,  "  Forward,  Light 


THE    BETRAYAL  121 

Brigade ! "  he  was  one  of  the  undismayed — though 
some  one  had  blundered.  In  that  campaign  he  won 
the  Victoria  Cross.  Among  the  first  to  enlist  in  the 
Virginian  army  in  1861,  he  fought  from  the  begin 
ning  to  the  end  of  the  war  between  the  states  as 
a  captain.  He  could  have  been  a  corps  commander, 
but  refused  all  promotions  that  were  offered  to  him, 
saying  that  he  preferred  to  be  in  the  thick  of  the 
fight.  Throughout  Reconstruction  he  had  spent  his 
time  harassing  carpetbaggers,  playing  cards,  and 
betting  on  his  favourite  horses.  Now  the  captain, 
tall,  strong,  of  military  bearing,  a  wit  and  a  racon 
teur,  was  regarded  by  every  man  that  knew  him  as 
a  prince  of  good  fellows.  His  face  was  a  bit  too 
red  and  his  manners  a  bit  too  rough  to  make  him 
altogether  fit  for  the  drawing-room;  but,  as  one 
excellent  lady  had  charitably  said  to  another  excel 
lent  lady,  "His  home  influences,  you  know,  my 
dear!"  " 

As  Captain  Lancaster  was  explaining  to  a  few 
gentlemen  in  front  of  the  Warren-Green  how  he 
had  made  five  dollars  just  before  the  battle  of 
Buena  Vista  by  betting  that  one  of  his  men  could 
jump  over  the  back  of  a  mule  in  a  long  running 
jump,  Colonel  Daingerfield  drove  up  rapidly,  and 
with  marked  agitation  beckoned  to  him. 

"  Captain  Lancaster,  sir,  have  you  heard  the  news 
— the  revolting  news?  That  damned  scoundrel  Tim 
Murphy  has  designated  that  low-bred  rascal  Jim 
Rice  to  run  for  the  Senate  against  me." 

"  Do  you  mean  Mr.  James  P.  Rice,  our  principal 
merchant?  " 

"  I  do,  sir." 

"Well,   Colonel,   as  he  measures  out  sugar  and 


122  THE     BETRAYAL 

lard  honestly,  maybe  he  will  be  no  less  honest  in 
weighing  legislative  bills." 

'  You  never  know  when  to  be  jocular,  Lancaster. 
Take  this  seat,  if  you  please;  I  wish  you  to  go  with 
me  to  see  Gary  Dabney,  our  young  leader.  Think 
of  that  fellow  Rice's  impertinence !  His  father 
used  to  be  my  father's  overseer.  Who  would  have 
thought  that  a  worse  curse  than  those  foreign  carpet 
baggers  could  be  visited  upon  Virginia !  Tim  Mur 
phy  and  Jim  Rice !  And  I  am  without  an  overseer 
to  chastise  them." 

They  found  Mr.  Dabney  in  his  office. 

'  You  have  heard  the  news,  Colonel,  I  see." 
"  Gary  Dabney,  this  is  not  a  time  for  passion.  I 
never  was  cooler  in  my  life.  But  I  feel  indigna 
tion,  sir, — righteous  wrath.  For  forty  years — the 
four  years  of  the  war  excepted — •!  have  represented 
this  legislative  district  without  opposition,  and  now 
this  clown,  this  ignoramus,  this  man  that  should  be 
my  servant,  would  turn  his  master  out  of  doors, 
then  sit  in  his  arm-chair.  The  governors  are  to  be 
governed,  hey?  That  is  Murphy's  purpose!  A 
shopkeeper  in  the  legislature!  What  will  he  be 
doing  there,  sir?  What?  Trading  in  Virginia's 
good  name." 

The  colonel  had  a  contempt  for  bomb-proof  sol 
diers,  as  the  war-time  statesmen  were  called.  He 
had  refused  to  shake  hands  with  John  Goode,  who 
was  a  member  of  the  Confederate  Congress,  when 
that  gentleman  had  introduced  himself  to  him  as 
"Colonel"  Goode. 

'  The  old  man,  or  the  soldier  with  a  single  leg, 
those  are  the  gentlemen  that  served  their  country  in 
legislative  halls  during  the  war  that  have  my  re- 


THE    BETRAYAL  123 

spect,  sirs;  not  the  white-livered  hulking  creatures 
that  hung  around  Richmond,  who  gave  themselves 
military  titles  after  the  war." 

Captain  Lancaster  came  to  the  colonel's  assist 
ance. 

"  Now,  Dabney,  we  all  know  that  the  colonel 
doesn't  take  this  matter  to  himself.  Surely  it's 
personal  to  us  as  it  is  to  him.  Jim  Rice  and  his 
likes  mustn't  be  allowed  to  take  charge  of  our  gov 
ernment." 

"Gentlemen,"  said  Dabney,  "the  danger  is  very 
great;  yet  we  may  be  unduly  alarmed.  Virginians, 
conservative  always,  have  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the 
appeals  of  demagogues.  Peasants  and  yeomen  are 
just  as  much  in  favour  of  our  traditions  as  are  gen 
tlemen.  I  am  not  one  to  despise  my  enemies;  but  I 
believe  that  our  danger  is  largely  due  to  the  apathy 
of  gentlemen — in  their  unwillingness  to  go  out 
among  yeomen  and  peasants  and  explain  to  them 
that  the  election  of  Murphy  and  his  followers  will 
mean  that  the  little  property  that  they  have  will  be 
taken  from  them.  Good  government  has  won  in 
the  past.  It  should  win  now. 

"  In  our  educational  campaign  our  candidates 
should  appeal  to  the  people  by  comparisons  too 
plain  to  be  misunderstood.  Suppose,  Colonel,  in  an 
address,  you  would  single  out  a  man  and  say  to  him, 
'  You,  John  Smith,  do  you  think  that  your  prop 
erty  would  be  safer  or  your  income  from  it  larger 
if  Mr.  Rice  be  elected  in  my  stead?  Many  of  the 
Readjuster  candidates  for  the  legislature  are  ne 
groes;  do  you  think  that  a  negro  is  more  virtuous 
or  more  capable  of  governing  you  than  a  white 
man — a  white  man  of  moral  and  financial  respon- 


124  THE    BETRAYAL 

sibility?  Would  you  go  to  Judge  Braxton  to  draw 
a  deed  of  conveyance,  or  would  you  get  Sam  Kelly 
to  draw  it  for  you?  Are  you  going  to  send  legis 
lators  to  Richmond  that  will  elect  Judge  Braxton  to 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Appeals,  or  do  you  prefer 
legislators  that  will  elect  Sam  Kelly?  Everybody  is 
promised  office;  are  there  enough  offices  for  you  all? 
Is  there  any  benefit  that  you  could  have  under  Read- 
juster  rule  that  you  would  not  have  under  Demo 
cratic  government?" 

Dabney  paused;  then,  as  both  Colonel  Dainger- 
field  and  Captain  Lancaster  were  silent,  he  con 
tinued  : 

"  Colonel,  if  you  would  go  among  the  people  in 
this  district  and  talk  with  them  that  way  the  oppo 
sition  would  soon  be  without  votes.  If  I  receive 
the  nomination  for  governor  I  shall  organise  a  cam 
paign,  with  my  agents  in  every  county,  instructed  to 
leave  oratory  alone,  and  to  make  no  formal  speeches. 
They  will  be  told  to  mingle  with  yeomen  and  peas 
ants  and  to  show  them  that  their  friends  of  three 
hundred  years  are  no  less  their  friends  to-day." 

"  What,  boy !  you  would  have  me,  at  my  age, 
after  my  public  service  of  forty  years,  stoop  to  parley 
with  Murphyites,  that  gang  of  white  criminals  and 
chicken-thieving  negroes?  No,  sir;  one  does  not 
remonstrate  with  a  thief;  one  sends  him  to  prison. 
I  shall  not  undertake  to  make  myself  a  schoolmaster 
for  niggers  and  overseers.  It  is  for  their  masters  to 
govern  them.  Look  here,  Cary,  you  have  not  been 
bitten  by  that  modern  snake,  the  People,  have  you? 
The  consent  of  the  governed !  Pish !  When  the 
devil  did  the  governed  ever  give  their  consent  to 
be  governed?  Did  you  ever  hear  of  a  boy  giving 


THE     BETRAYAL  125 

his  consent  to  be  licked?  Did  you  ever  hear  of  a 
thief  giving  his  consent  to  be  sent  to  prison?" 

"  But  you  are  wrong,  Colonel,"  said  Captain  Lan 
caster.  "You're  in  a  frame  of  mind  that  every 
soldier  knows  to  be  dangerous.  I  used  to  wear  a 
sword.  So  did  you.  But  we  both  took  up  a  musket 
and  shot  straight  and  fast  when  the  enemy  pressed 
us.  You  fight  Murphy  to  win,  I  say." 

"Zounds,  man!  I  was  a  gentleman  before  I  was 
a  soldier!  Every  soldier  knows,  and  none  better 
than  you,  that  death  is  one  of  the  lesser  evils.  Vir 
ginia  may  die, — she  is  certain  to  die  in  time, — but 
I  will  be  damned  if  I  will  see  her  die  in  dishonour. 
If  her  integrity  is  to  be  preserved  by  an  alliance  be 
tween  gentlemen  and  thieves,  I,  for  one,  shall  not 
be  a  party  to  any  such  treaty;  but  I  will  draw  my 
sword  again,  and  it  will  drip  with  blood  ere  I  shall 
witness  any  such  act  of  infamy." 

"You  misunderstand  me,  Colonel,"  said  the  young 
leader.  "  I  see  nothing  inconsistent  with  Virginian 
traditions  in  the  plan  that  I  proposed.  Were  I  an 
orator  I  would  say  that  I  love  yeomen  and  peasants, 
that  I  love  all  God's  humanity — not  as  Murphy 
loves  his  plain  people,  but  without  shame.  We  are 
all  bound  together  by  one  great  common  tie — neces 
sity,  a  chain  that  can  not  be  broken.  There  is  an 
other  tie,  Colonel, — Almighty  God.  At  least  all 
in  Virginia  recognise  that  bond.  There  are  the 
commands  of  the  living  God:  'Whatsoever  ye  do 
unto  the  least  of  these,  my — my — my — people, — ye 
do  unto  me.'  I  would  say  all  this  and  more — if  I 
were  an  orator.  But  you  are  an  eloquent  man,  sir, 
and  can  sway  multitudes.  Why  not  frequently  ad 
dress  yeomen  and  peasants  in  that  way,  explaining 


i26  THE    BETRAYAL 

all  Murphy's  tricks  to  them  and  telling  them  that 
they  are  a  part  of  Virginia,  that  we  love  them." 

Dabney  had  touched  the  weak  spot  in  the  col 
onel's  armour.  The  old  warrior's  duty  to  God 
was  not  so  plain  to  him  as  was  his  duty  to  his 
neighbour,  although  he  felt  that  his  first  duty  was 
to  his  Maker.  He  feared  that  he  knew  very  little 
of  his  higher  duty,  but  secretly  took  comfort  in  the 
poem  which  says  that  Abou  Ben  Adhem's  name  led 
all  the  rest. 

A  long  pause  followed  Gary  Dabney's  advice. 
Then  Captain  Lancaster  suggested  that  the  three 
gentlemen  drive  over  to  Morven  and  consult  Judge 
Braxton.  Only  a  few  words  were  spoken  during  the 
short  drive,  and  those  by  Captain  Lancaster  and 
Mr.  Dabney. 

"  Good-morning,  gentlemen !  This  is  indeed  a 
pleasure!  Daingerfield,  I  hear  that  you  are  to  re 
tire  to  private  life.  You  will  be  greatly  relieved,  I 
know,  to  take  off  the  harness  of  public  service." 

"So  it  seems,  Judge,  so  it  seems;  and,  sir,  I  bring 
you  pleasant  news:  Sam  Kelly  expects  to  interpret 
the  law  in  your  place." 

"  I  had  not  heard  of  Sam's  aspirations." 

"  I  know  nothing  of  the  qualifications  that  make 
one  eligible  for  the  Supreme  Court  of  Appeals,  un 
less  a  horse " 

"You  mean  a  mule,  Lancaster;  an  ass,  sir,"  said 
Mr.  Carter,  his  eyes  twinkling.  The  venerable  phy 
sician  had  made  his  way  into  the  library  without  at 
tracting  the  attention  of  those  that  were  assembled 
there.  "But  why  this  unseemly  levity,  gentlemen? 
Daingerfield,  did  I  hear  you  intimate  that  the  hab- 


THE     BETRAYAL  127 

Itat  of  the  equine  quadruped  Equus  asinus  is  the  bench 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Appeals  of  Virginia?" 

"Gentlemen,  gentlemen!"  said  the  young  leader, 
"  must  I  remind  you  of  the  wisdom  of  sages? — 

" '  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident — that 
all  men  are  created  equal' 

"  '  The  voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice  of  God.' 

" '  Government  of  the  people  by  the  people  for 
the  people y  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth' ' 

"  Ha,  ha,  ha !  "  loudly  laughed  the  irrepressible 
captain.  "How  is  that  for  oratory,  Colonel?  If 
words  be  ammunition,  already  Murphy  has  us 
licked." 

Ignoring  Captain  Lancaster's  banter,  Colonel 
Daingerfield  chose  to  take  Dabney's  remarks  seri 
ously.  He  drew  himself  up  in  his  Mr.-President- 
and-Gentlemen-of-the-Senate  way,  and  his  voice  was 
not  so  soft  and  low  as  when  he  spoke  in  the  pres 
ence  of  ladies. 

"  Cary  Dabney,  you  are  right,  sir;  the  time  has 
come  when  Murphy's  plain  people  must  be  taught 
elemental  morality.  We  must  tell  them,  sir,  about 
the  temple  that  was  reared  upon  a  foundation  of 
sand — the  hideous  architectural  perversion  that  hu 
miliates  every  gentleman  of  the  human  race.  You 
are  right,  sir;  we  must  hold  up  to  public  scorn  the 
ignorance  of  the  architects  of  that  vile  obstruction 
of  the  landscape." 

"Hear,  hear!" 

"Yes,  sirs,  hear;  hear  about  that  experiment  in 
government,  the  failure  that  put  to  shame  the  peo 
ples  of  the  earth.  Hear,  sirs,  about  the  men  that 
fashioned  a  government  out  of  a  rhetorical  phrase. 
May  God  grant  peace  to  the  poor  author  of  those 


ia8  THE    BETRAYAL 

words,  who  never  intended  that  they  should  be  taken 
seriously.  '  The  voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice  of 
God!  Pish!" 

The  colonel's  eyes  flashed.  His  auditors  listened 
attentively.  They  believed  him  to  be  a  profound 
student  of  the  science  of  politics.  Underlying  his 
intemperance  of  speech  they  recognised  the  philos 
ophy  of  statecraft  that  had  given  to  Virginia  a  gov 
ernment  that  was  very  nearly  perfect.  They  ban 
tered  him;  but  this  the  colonel  took  good-naturedly, 
laughing  with  them  while  he  pretended  to  be  angry. 
He  knew  their  purpose. 

"  Sirs,  let  us  look  closely  at  those  men  who  pro 
posed  to  overthrow  a  government  founded  on  nat 
ural  laws,  who  were  willing  to  disregard  the  stu 
dents  of  statecraft  throughout  the  life  of  the  human 
race,  who  were  willing  to  throw  aside  government 
that  grew  out  of  the  experience  of  seven  thousand 
years.  Let  us  look  closely  at  those  men,  I  say,  and 
hold  on  high  a  picture  of  the  temple  that  they 
erected,  that  every  man  among  Murphy's  plain  peo 
ple  may  see  its  hideous  front." 

"  Not  a  temple,  Colonel ;  it  looks  like  a  gaming 
house." 

"  See  here,  Lancaster,  are  you  to  hold  up  this 
picture,  or  am  I  to  do  it,  sir?" 

The  colonel  resumed  after  an  agitated  oratorical 
pause: 

"  George  Washington :  a  yeoman  who  pretended 
to  be  a  gentleman.  That  man's  life  was  spent  in 
the  woods,  away  from  his  fellow-men.  Uncouth, 
the  little  education  that  he  had  was  obtained  by 
reading  books  of  his  own  selection,  containing  crude 
ideas  crudely  expressed.  An  engineer,  graduated 


THE     BETRAYAL  129 

under  that  great  master,  George  Washington  him 
self,  his  most  important  engineering  work — a  canal 
which  was  to  connect  the  Ohio  and  the  Potomac 
rivers — could  be  built  no  further  than  Cumberland 
because  there  was  no  water  with  which  to  feed  it. 
Millions  of  dollars  were  squandered  on  the  part  that 
was  made.  The  great  engineer  had  failed  properly 
to  survey  the  route  of  the  canal,  although  he  had 
walked  over  that  route  many  times.  Its  construc 
tion  was  undertaken  after  the  war  with  England  had 
given  him  the  reputation  of  being  a  master  in  all 
branches  of  human  endearour. 

"That  man,  sirs,  George  Washington,  the  subject 
of  song  and  story,  was  a  soldier,  the  commanding 
general  in  a  war  that  lasted  seven  years;  yet  he 
never  won  a  battle:  his  only  victory  was  a  skirmish. 
Sirs,  at  one  time  the  public  confidence  in  him  was 
so  great  that  he  commanded  an  army  of  nearly 
three  thousand  men.  True,  one-fifth  of  the  popu 
lation  of  a  country  can  be  in  the  field  all  the  time 
without  serious  disturbance  of  economic  conditions. 
True,  sirs,  some  other  man  could  have  maintained 
permanently  an  army  of  more  than  half  a  million 
men.  The  loss  of  his  soldiers  through  wounds  and 
death  was  not  so  great  as  perceptibly  to  affect  the 
death-rate  of  the  American  peoples.  During  the  war 
of  the  Revolution  twenty  boys  grew  into  manhood 
for  every  man  that  was  killed  or  wounded.  From 
an  army  that  gathered  about  Boston  in  the  few  days 
following  Lexington,  roughly  estimated  to  be  thirty 
thousand  men,  the  great  soldier  was  soon  leading  a 
band  of  three  thousand  ruffians  through  New  Jersey. 
He  knew  no  more  how  to  provision  than  how  to  or 
ganise  and  fight  an  army.  He  let  his  men  starve 


130  THE    BETRAYAL 

in  the  richest  section  of  the  world — starve  among 
their  friends — while  food  in  abundance  surrounded 
them.  He  let  them  freeze,  although  the  furs  of 
wild  animals  that  were  everywhere  about  might  have 
kept  those  few  soldiers  warm. 

"  That  man,  sirs,  that  George  Washington,  that 
stupendous  failure,  who  could  not  write  a  gram 
matical  sentence,  was  called  from  his  failures  to 
organise  and  to  administer  a  government.  At  least 
he  must  have  been  morally  if  not  intellectually  great. 
He  must  have  been  a  good  man,  kind  to  his  neigh 
bours,  a  loving  husband 'and  father,  an  upright,  use 
ful  citizen,  a  man  whose  integrity  was  beyond  sus 
picion.  Not  so.  He  was  a  libertine,  and  all  his 
children  were  illegitimate.  He  was  a  gambler — 
playing  cards,  throwing  dice,  and  betting  on  game 
cocks.  He  drove  hard  bargains  with  his  neighbours, 
he  lied  under  oath,  and  some  of  those  that  knew  him 
did  not  hesitate  to  offer  bribes  to  the  fellow  while  he 
was  the  chief  officer  of  the  Federal  government — 
bribes  that  amounted  to  fortunes.  At  the  time  of 
his  death  he  was  the  wealthiest  man  in  North 
America." 

"  I  never  advised  you  to  hold  any  such  mirror  up 
to  the  people,"  protested  Mr.  Dabney,  intending  to 
check  the  colonel's  violence.  "  This  is  not  a  time  for 
passion,  sir.  Class  must  not  be  arrayed  against 
class." 

"  Passion,  sir!  I  never  was  more  temperate  in  my 
life!  Class  against  class!  The  classes  must  under 
stand  one  another,  or  suspicion  will  take  the  place  of 
confidence.  Is  your  position  so  weak  that  you  fear 
to  go  to  these  misguided  yeomen  and  peasants  and 
tell  them  the  truth?  Are  you  afraid  to  promulgate 


THE     BETRAYAL  131 

your  theory  of  government?  Are  you  afraid  hon 
estly  to  state  your  convictions?" 

The  colonel  brought  his  cane  down  upon  the  li 
brary  table,  and  then  paused  to  glare  at  his  vic 
tim. 

"  Thomas  Jefferson :  part  yeoman,  part  peasant, 
altogether  a  thief.  Here  is  a  passage  from  *  Debts 
and  Taxes'  that  I  copied,  which  promulgates  part 
of  the  moral  views  of  the  Rogue  and  Reverend 
John  Henry  Jones,  one  of  Jefferson's  imitators. 
The  quotation  is  from  a  letter  written  by  Jefferson 
to  Madison,  which  Jones  took — this  time,  sirs,  he 
did  not  steal — from  The  Writings  of  Thomas  Jef 
ferson,  Volume  III,  pages  27  to  32,  thus: 

The  question  whether  one  generation  of  man  has  a  right 
to  bind  another  seems  never  to  have  been  started  either  on 
this  side  or  our  side  of  the  water,  yet  it  is  a  question  of  such 
consequence  as  not  only  to  merit  decision,  but  place  also, 
among  the  fundamental  principles  of  every  government. 
.  .  .  That  no  such  obligation  can  be  transmitted  I  think 
very  capable  of  proof.  ...  I  suppose  that  the  received 
opinion  that  the  public  debts  of  one  generation  devolve  on 
the  next,  has  been  suggested  by  our  seeing  habitually  in  pri 
vate  life,  that  he  who  succeeds  to  lands  is  required  to  pay  the 
debts  of  his  predecessor;  without  considering  that  this  re 
quirement  is  municipal  only,  not  moral,  flowing  from  the 
will  of  the  society  which  has  found  it  convenient  to  appro 
priate  the  lands  of  a  descendant  on  condition  of  a  payment  of 
his  debt;  but  that  between  society  and  society,  or  generation 
and  generation,  there  is  no  municipal  obligation,  no  umpire 
but  the  law  of  nature.  .  .  .  The  earth  belongs  always 
to  the  living  generation.  The  question,  then,  is,  that 
neither  the  representatives  of  a  nation,  nor  the  whole  nation 
itself  assembled,  can  validly  engage  debts  beyond  what  they 
may  pay  in  their  own  time. 


132  THE     BETRAYAL 

"That  letter  proves  that  Jefferson  was  the  orig 
inal  repudiator.  Parson  Jones,  I  believe,  claims  to 
be  the  father  of  readjustment.  In  the  face  of  this 
quotation  Tim  Murphy  can  not  claim  to  be  the 
father  of  repudiation. 

;'  Jefferson,  an  ignoramus  as  well  as  a  thief, 
ground  out  several  theories  of  statecraft  a  day. 
Some  of  them  belonged  to  him — others  he  stole. 
But  he  used  them  all  so  far  as  he  could  in  the  Great 
American  Experiment.  No  greater  curse  was  ever 
visited  upon  a  people  than  Thomas  Jefferson  upon 
all  Americans,  and  particularly  upon  the  people  of 
this  commonwealth.  That  ass,  taking  a  deep 
breath  one  day,  brayed  long  and  loud,  'We  hold 
these  truths  to  be  self -evident — that  all  men  are  cre 
ated  equal.'  The  lofty  Jefferson  intellect,  with  its 
myriads  of  stupendous  creations,  threw  aside  the 
government  of  philosophers,  hallowed  by  the  blood 
of  humanity  that  for  seven  thousand  years  had  run 
in  rivers,  then  undertook  to  change  the  laws  of 
nature." 

"Hold  on,  Daingerfield,"  said  Judge  Braxton; 
"  Gary  was  right.  Moreover,  Virginians  have  al 
ways  constituted  one  great  family,  affectionate,  with 
responsibilities  properly  divided  among  them,  each 
man  owing  a  definite  duty  to  the  entire  family. 
We  must  not  remind  men  of  their  failings  in  harsh 
terms.  Government  must  be  conducted  like  a  house 
hold:  the  father  must  be  firm,  but  gentle;  he  must 
know  how  to  punish,  and  how  to  forget." 

"  Sir,  I  say  fiddlesticks !  Fiddlesticks,  I  say ! 
Please  hear  me  to  the  end." 

Again  the  colonel  paused.  He  glared  at  each 
gentleman  separately  before  he  continued. 


THE    BETRAYAL  133 

"Benjamin  Franklin:  the  peasant  whose  gross 
immorality  ran  the  gamut  of  human  vice  was  self- 
educated  also,,  and  sowed  his  half-baked  ideas  broad 
cast  like  the  seed  of  tares  blown  by  some  evil  wind 
over  a  field  of  wheat.  Sirs,  I  felt  ashamed  of  the 
human  race  when  I  read  the  autobiography  of  that 
rogue.  The  saying,  '  He  even  stole  lightning  and 
bottled  it,'  referred  to  that  man,  and  originated 
among  his  kind,  who  knew  the  fellow's  reputation. 
Having  stolen  everything  on  earth  that  he  could 
lay  his  hands  on,  he  undertook  to  steal  from 
heaven." 

The  colonel  did  not  live  to  read  the  autobiog 
raphy  of  one  Jack  London.  However,  Benjamin 
Franklin  gloated  over  his  crimes  and  vices  almost 
as  much  as  did  the  chief  parvenu  of  letters  of  our 
time  over  his. 

Captain  Lancaster  felt  that  some  of  these  remarks 
had  been  directed  to  him.  Did  the  colonel  mean  to 
say  that  a  gentleman  should  not  race  his  horses  and 
play  cards?  Only  last  Saturday  night  they  had 
played  poker  until  quarter  of  twelve,  when  the  game 
had  been  discontinued  out  of  respect  to  the  Lord. 
The  damned  old  hypocrite ! 

'  They  acted  after  their  day  and  generation." 

The  colonel  turned  his  withering  eyes  upon  the 
captain. 

"They  did  not,  sir!  The  Ten  Commandments 
have  guided  human  conduct  since  the  days  of  Moses. 
There  has  never  been  a  period  in  civilised  society 
when  the  moral  code  permitted  a  man  to  lie  and  to 
steal  and  to  commit  adultery.  There  never  was  a 
period  when  men  were  expected  to  live  indecent 
lives.  Socrates,  St.  Paul,  Marcus  Aurelius — the 


134  THE    BETRAYAL 

great  men  in  every  period  of  the  world's  history 
observed  the  elemental  laws  of  morality. 

"  Some  there  are  that  defend  Washington  and 
those  like  him  when  they  are  ridiculed  because  of 
their  ignorance  of  the  tongue  that  their  mothers 
spoke.  Before  Washington's  period  many  of  the 
great  masters  of  English  literature  had  lived,  and 
many  important  works  on  grammar  and  rhetoric  had 
been  issued.  The  Virginian  gentleman  of  that  pe 
riod  correctly  used  several  languages  besides  his 
own.  Ignorance  is  the  only  excuse  that  will  lie  that 
can  be  pleaded  for  Washington  and  his  contem 
poraries  by  their  misguided  advocates.  Yes,  they 
used  English  of  their  time — and  the  nigger  preacher, 
Shad  Berkeley,  uses  the  English  of  his  time — and 
kind. 

"  In  another  way,  sirs,  those  heroes  of  the  plain 
people  acted  after  their  kind.  The  restraining 
hands  of  their  masters  had  no  sooner  been  with 
drawn  than  they  gave  themselves  over  to  all  the 
gross  sensuality  of  their  brutal  instincts.  They  be 
came  intoxicated  with  power,  and  the  first  use  that 
they  made  of  their  new  force  was  to  let  loose  their 
vile  passions.  Tweed  and  his  gang  of  Tammany- 
ites  recently  held  sway,  and  their  methods  are  now 
copied  wherever  a  people  rule." 

Ah,  Colonel,  how  your  noble  heart  would  have 
been  wrenched  had  you  lived  in  this  year  of  grace 
1910,  while  the  thefts  of  the  people  reach  heights 
of  artistry  heretofore  unknown  to  man;  in  this  year 
of  grace  1910,  while  the  Board  of  Estimate  and 
Apportionment  of  the  city  of  New  York  announces 
that  the  Board  will  spend  not  less  than  one  thou 
sand  million  dollars  during  the  next  four  years;  in 


THE  BETRAYAL 

this  year  of  grace  1910,  while  the  expenditures  of 
the  city  of  New  York  will  be  one-fourth  as  large  as 
the  total  expenditure  of  the  United  States  govern 
ment;  in  this  year  of  grace  1910,  while  the  plain 
people  of  the  city  of  New  York  steal  alike  from  gen 
tleman  and  peasant  and  their  own  posterity  all  that 
they  can  steal !  Draw  near,  O  ye  shades  of  Washing 
ton  and  Jefferson  and  Lincoln,  and  harken  to  your 
words:  "The  voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice  of 
God."  "We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident — 
that  all  men  are  created  equal."  "  Government  of 
the  people  by  the  people  for  the  people,  shall  not 
perish  from  the  earth." 

"  I  warn  you,  sirs,"  Colonel  Daingerfield  contin 
ued,  "  if  Tim  Murphy  Tweed  fastens  his  clutches 
upon  this  state  chaos  will  take  the  place  of  order; 
decency  will  make  place  for  all  that  is  vile,  and  this 
proud  commonwealth  will  stand  out  among  the  na 
tions  of  the  world  as  an  example  of  shame.  O  Vir 
ginians  that  love  your  country,  buckle  on  your  ar 
mour!  God  has  seen  fit  to  let  the  devil  loose  from 
hell.  Buckle  on  your  armour,  I  say;  draw  your 
mighty  sword,  and  let  every  son  of  this  old  com 
monwealth  be  gathered  to  his  fathers  ere  her  shield 
that  he  bears  is  stained  by  the  blood  of  his  own 
dishonour." 

"Cease,  Francis,  cease!  Cease,  I  say!"  the  old 
physician  commanded.  "  My  children,  there  is  dan 
ger  in  such  violence.  Murphy  is  telling  these  mis 
guided  creatures,  his  plain  people  and  his  negroes, 
that  they  are  not  the  equals  of  aristocrats  before  the 
law.  In  all  my  eighty-six  years  I  have  never  known 
an  instance  of  oppression  under  cloak  of  law  in  this 
commonwealth.  The  gentry  were  first  to  declare  that 


136  THE    BETRAYAL 

all  men  are  equal  while  they  stand  before  the  bar 
of  justice.  Francis,  boy,  if  you  go  before  the  peo 
ple  with  such  violent  expressions  they  will  say  that 
Murphy  is  right.  They  will  not  understand.  Are 
they  able  to  distinguish  between  natural  equality  and 
equality  before  the  law?  And  there  is  another  issue 
that  you  must  meet,  my  son :  Are  all  men  made  of 
the  same  clay?  Aye,  you  have  even  a  larger  ques 
tion  to  answer:  Is  the  ignorant  labourer  with  the 
sweat  upon  his  brow  per  se  more  moral  than  the 
educated  gentleman — the  gentleman  with  scores  of 
generations  of  culture,  the  heritage  of  his  ances 
tors?" 

"  Mr.  Carter,  sir,  far  be  it  from  me  to  argue  with 
you.  Why  should  I,  sir,  when  our  views  are  har 
monious?  Why  should  I  debate  these  matters  with 
any  of  you  gentlemen,  for  you  all  agree  with  me? 
You  believe  that  it  would  be  inexpedient  to  express 
my  views  to  the  people  as  I  have  expressed  them 
to  you. 

"  Sirs,  you  are  wrong.  Pardon  me  when  I  say 
that  my  forty  years  of  experience  are  worth  quite 
as  much  as  your  theories.  Did  you  ever  hear  of  a 
sane  man  that  was  willing  to  be  governed  by  his 
inferiors?  Did  you  ever  hear  of  an  inferior  that 
was  willing  to  be  governed  by  one  of  his  own  kind? 
Do  you  think  that  Rice  would  vote  for  Stover  the 
smith,  or  that  Stover  would  vote  for  Rice  the  shop 
keeper?  For  forty  years  I  have  trusted  the  people 
— but  in  all  that  time  they  saw  the  whip  that  I  held 
in  my  good  right  hand.  They  will  not  tolerate  that 
low-born  repudiator,  Timothy  Murphy,  and  his 
kind.  The  people  expect  the  whip  of  authority  to 
be  applied  vigorously  to  their  bare  backs;  but,  sirs, 


THE     BETRAYAL  137 

the  time  is  not  yet  when  the  people  wish  to  be 
whipped  by  the  people." 

"  I  thought  you  said  that  you  loved  the  people, 
Colonel?"  suggested  Captain  Lancaster.  "Was 
that  merely  a  rhetorical  period?  You  orators  call  it 
a  figure  of  speech,  I  believe.  Anyhow,  it  has  all  of 
the  vigour  of  the  business  end  of  a  mule." 

"  Lancaster,  your  jocularity  is  most  unseemly.  I 
do  love  the  people.  Sir,  metaphor  finds  no  place 
among  my  plain  words.  Like  Marc  Antony — 

"  '  I  am  no  orator,  as  Brutus  is ; 

But,  as  you  know  me  all,  a  plain  blunt  man.' 

But  here  I  am  to  speak  what  I  do  know.  My  love 
for  all  Virginians,  for  all  humanity,  I  may  express 
in  my  poor  feeble  words.  I  have  passed  the  age,  sir, 
when  I  may  be  accused  of  demagogy,  false  pride,  or 
vain  ambition." 

"Hear,  hear!" 

Throughout  his  public  service  in  war  and  in  peace 
Colonel  Daingerfield  had  drawn  no  salary. 

"And  mark  you,  sirs,  I  governed  the  people.  I 
was  their  master,  not  their  servant.  A  strange  theory 
that,  promulgated  to  the  world  by  the  heroes  to 
whom  I  have  referred:  the  servant  is  better  fitted 
than  his  master  to  make  the  laws  that  are  necessary 
to  regulate  society.  Parson  Jones  tells  us  that  the 
uneducated  are  more  moral  than  the  educated  and 
better  fitted  for  the  responsibilities  of  government. 
In  the  next  breath  he  asks  us  to  educate  his  plain 
people." 

" '  Government  of  the  people  by  the  people  for 
the  people,  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth' "  the 
captain  quoted.  "  Do  I  understand,  Colonel,  that 


138  THE    BETRAYAL 

you  agree  with  the  views  expressed  by  old  Abe.     I 
haven't  heard  you  comment  on  them,  sir." 

"Zounds,  Lancaster!  Is  it  necessary  for  me  to 
discourse  on  a  proposition  so  preposterous? 

"Abraham  Lincoln:  rail-splitter,  shopkeeper, 
farmer,  jackleg  lawyer,  ne'er-do-well.  He  first  at 
tracted  the  attention  of  a  very  plain  western  people 
by  his  coarse  witticisms — or  rather  by  the  wit  of 
others,  which  he  clothed  in  language  more  foul  than 
its  creators  had  seen  fit  to  use.  This  uncouth  crea 
ture  did  attract  the  attention  of  his  kind  after  he 
was  well  past  middle  life.  He  had  failed  in  every 
thing  except  coarseness.  But,  sirs,  his  coarseness  was 
a  success  among  coarse  peoples. 

"This  self-educated  creature  came  into  this 
breathing  world  scarce  half  made  up,  and  that  so 
lamely  and  unfashionable  that  dogs  barked  at  him 
as  he  halted  by  them.  There  are  some  that  say 
that  he  came  into  this  world  before  his  time,  but  I 
am  disposed  to  treat  that  as  a  myth.  He  was  de 
clared  insane — be  it  said  greatly  to  the  credit  of 
those  very  plain  people.  But  he  was  good-hearted, 
sirs;  but  not  more  so  than  my  dog  Bull  Run.  He 
was  as  weak  as  he  was  good-hearted.  Yes,  I  think 
we  may  say  that  he  was  good-hearted  and  physically 
brave. 

"  This  Failure,  having  been  selected  out  of  twenty- 
five  million  Yankees  to  conduct  a  great  war,  became 
a  murderer  on  a  large  scale.  Every  man  that  was 
killed  during  the  war  after  the  first  battle  of  Bull 
Run  was  murdered  by  Lincoln  and  those  who  placed 
him  in  power.  He  killed  many  Virginians — he  slaugh 
tered  half  a  million  Federals;  for  this  incompetent, 
this  associate  of  clowns,  was  unable  to  select  proper 


THE     BETRAYAL  139 

officers  to  command  his  armies.  Even  the  first  bat 
tle  of  Bull  Run  would  not  have  been  fought  if  a 
peasant  of  ordinary  intelligence  had  been  president 
of  the  confederation  of  our  enemies.  He  permitted 
a  powerful  government  to  be  organised  and  power 
ful  armies  to  be  formed  and  equipped  while  he  tried 
to  learn  the  A  B  C  of  civil  government  and  military 
efficiency.  While  Mr.  Davis  selected  the  most  com 
petent  among  all  Confederates  to  resist  our  invaders, 
this  man  of  the  people  appointed  the  commanders 
of  his  armies  by  the  eenie-meenie-miny-mo  process. 

"  Sirs,  Lincoln  was  a  better  rhetorician  than  Jef 
ferson,  but  a  greater  fool.  Even  Jefferson  knew 
that  there  could  be  no  such  thing  as  government  of 
the  people  by  the  people  for  the  people — that  men 
do  not  govern  themselves.  I  shall  say  little  more 
about  '  honest  old  Abe.'  Not  long  ago  he  went  to 
join  the  angels.  .  .  .  Yes,  yes;  he  was  a  kind- 
hearted  man.  .  .  .  Lancaster,  some  day  you 
ought  to  read  the  biographies  of  the  men  that 
were  called  by  the  people  to  be  their  governors — 
rail-splitters,  mule  drivers,  and  cobblers. 

"  O  ye  misguided  peoples,  why  will  ye  obey  the 
voice  of  demagogues !  Biut  why  reason  with  these 
dumb  driven  cattle?  The  rod,  sirs,  was  the  sceptre 
of  God.  It  is  for  us  to  follow  His  example.  He  is 
the  Fountain  of  Wisdom.  We  learn  from  Him  that 
the  master  must  rule — and  rule  by  force." 

"  Colonel,"  Dabney  said,  "  I  have  listened  to  you 
with  close  attention.  I  think  that  you  are  partly 
right.  However,  you  should  not  go  before  the 
people  now,  for  they  are  already  inflamed  by  truth, 
and  you  would  repeat  that  truth  bluntly,  which 
would  be  a  great  mistake.  Yeomen  and  peasants 


140  THE    BETRAYAL 

who  have  loved  you  would  tear  you  limb  from  limb 
should  you  be  so  unwise  as  to  address  them  as  you 
have  just  spoken  to  us.  I  went  among  them  re 
cently.  As  wild  as  fiends,  all  their  unholy  passions 
let  loose,  they  feel  no  restraint,  and  will  tolerate 
none.  We  must  reason  with  them;  for,  as  Judge 
Braxton  says,  there  are  times  when  a  father  may  not 
whip  his  child.  Sir,  you  must  not  punish  these  poor 
children.  You  must  treat  them  gently,  soothing 
them  after  the  manner  of  a  woman;  then,  after  vic 
tory  is  ours,  wre  shall  have  four  years  in  which  to 
reestablish  the  government  of  our  fathers,  and  the 
honour  of  Virginia  will  have  been  saved." 

"  I  agree  with  Gary  in  these  matters  of  policy," 
Judge  Braxton  said.  "  Nevertheless,  yeomen  and 
peasants  must  be  forced  to  understand  that  Virginia 
may  not  demand  of  her  creditors  that  they  shall 
accept  any  terms  that  she  may  see  fit  to  offer,  other 
wise  that  she  will  go  into  bankruptcy,  then  say  like 
all  dishonest  debtors,  '  Give  me  time  and  I  will  pay.' 
Gentlemen,  Virginia's  debt  must  not  be  settled  that 
way. 

"  Nor  must  the  payment  of  the  debt  fall  unequally 
upon  the  people.  I  advocate  the  principles  of  true 
democracy,  which  place  the  burdens  of  government 
upon  those  that  are  responsible  to  those  that  are 
governed.  Yeomen  and  peasants  must  be  relieved 
of  taxation;  and  gentlemen,  who  hold  the  lands, 
must  ask  no  more  of  them  than  their  faithful  serv 
ice  in  restoring  the  commonwealth  to  her  for 
mer  productiveness.  Gentlemen,  we  must  pay  the 
debt." 

After  a  while  the  conference  ended.  Colonel 
Daingerfield,  who  would  not  recede  an  inch  from 


THE     BETRAYAL  141 

his  position,  did  not  resist  the  temptation  of  deliver 
ing  himself  of  a  paraphrase  as  a  parting  shot: 

'The  people,  may  they  ever  be  right;  but  when 
they  are  wrong,  chastise  the  people !  " 

John  Harrison  had  made  a  mistake.  This  he  saw 
as  he  again  read  Lelia  Braxton's  letter  while  return 
ing  to  Warrenton  early  in  the  morning  of  the  day 
after  he  had  seen  General  Murphy.  How  stupid  he 
had  been !  He  should  have  gone  to  her  and  told  her 
his  plans  in  detail  as  soon  as  he  had  received  her 
letter.  He  would  go  to  her  late  that  afternoon, 
immediately  upon  his  arrival. 

"  Judge  Braxton,  I  have  called  to  see  Miss  Lelia." 

"  Well,  John,  you  will  find  her  in  the  garden — in 
the  magnolia  grove." 

As  John  Harrison  approached  Lelia  Braxton 
arose  and  stood  facing  him,  for  she  had  heard  his 
footsteps.  Her  hand  trembled,  and  her  face  was 
pale  as  she  clutched  the  wood  of  the  old  grapevine 
swing. 

"Good-morning,  Mr.  Harrison!  I  was  reading 
the  book — the  book  that  you  gave  me.  There  is  a 
great  deal  in  it  that  I  do  not  understand,  although 
father  says — father  says — that — that — 'Tennyson's 
thoughts  are  clothed  in  language  so  simple  that  a 
child  may  understand  them.  I — I — • — 

Her  last  words  died  away,  for  Harrison  had  taken 
her  hand.  Never  once  had  he  withdrawn  his  gaze 
from  her  eyes,  the  eyes  that  he  thought  so  beautiful. 
He  did  not  seem  to  be  aware  that  she  was  speaking; 
she  was  never  able  to  recall  what  she  said. 

"  Lelia,  twelve  years  ago — it  was  in  the  spring- 


142  THE    BETRAYAL 

time,  an  April  day — I  saw  you  through  the  mag 
nolias  as  you  sat  in  this  old  grapevine  swing.  You 
were  eight  years  old  then — and  I  was  seventeen.  I 
had  just  returned  from  the  Episcopal  High  School, 
in  Alexandria,  for  the  holidays.  You  were  the  pret 
tiest  child  that  I  had  ever  seen.  You  wore  a  white 
dress  and  blue  satin  slippers;  a  blue  sash  was  tied 
about  your  waist;  a  bow  of  blue  ribbon  was  in.  your 
hair.  '  Mother  likes  me  to  wear  blue,'  you  said, 
'  'cause  blue  matches  my  beautiful  eyes.'  .  .  . 
Last  spring,  Lelia,  just  after  your  nineteenth  birth 
day,  I  saw  you  through  the  magnolias — again  you 
were  sitting  in  the  old  grapevine  swing.  The  sun  was 
about  to  set,  as  now  he  is  about  to  set  in  all  his  glory, 
and  some  of  his  rays  got  tangled  in  your  hair — they 
are  there  yet.  Your  hair  always  reminds  me  of  sun 
shine,  Lelia, — I  never  see  the  setting  sun  that  I  do  not 
think  of  your  hair  and  see  it  as  his  last  ray  fell  on 
it  that  April  day  a  year  ago.  .  .  .  You  were 
dressed  in  white.  Again  you  wore  blue  satin  slip 
pers  and  a  blue  belt,  and  a  bow  of  blue  ribbon  was 
fastened  in  some  way — a  very  pretty  way — in  your 
hair.  I  loved  you.  For  a  long  time  I  had  loved 
you.  I  asked  you  to  marry  me — as  you  sat  there 
in  that  old  grapevine  swing,  marking  the  grass  with 
those  blue  satin  slippers.  Then  you  rose,  Lelia,  and 
stood  as  you  are  standing  now.  Your  face  was  pale 
— as  it  is  now.  Then  the  colour  rushed  to  it  in  a 
great  crimson  wave — as  it  is  rushing  to  it  now.  You 
never  answered  me — you  never  spoke  a  single  word 
• — but  I  knelt  down  at  your  feet  as  though  you  were 
one  of  God's  angels,  and  I  kissed  your  trembling 
hand — I  must  have  kissed  it  a  hundred  times — and 
• — and — and  then  you  were  my  affianced  bride.  .  .  . 


THE     BETRAYAL  143 

Springtime  is  here  again,  O  my  love;  and  as  I  came 
I  saw  you  through  the  magnolias,  sitting  in  the  old 
grapevine  swing,  just  as  I  have  seen  you  every  hour 
since  that  evening  a  year  ago  when  you  entered  my 
life — like  the  holy  spirit  of  God.  I  am  here  again, 
Lelia, — here  to  claim  the  vows  that  you  made  to  me 
—here  to  take  you  to  be  my  wife." 

John  Harrison  knelt  down.  There  was  that  dig 
nity  in  his  posture  which  one  sees  in  an  old  man  as 
he  reverently  kneels  before  his  Maker.  A  single 
tear  fell  on  his  strong  hand  as  it  tightly  clasped 
the  soft  hand  of  the  woman  that  he  loved.  The 
young  man  was  thrilled.  Were  all  the  waters  of 
Jordan  more  sacred  than  that  single  tear? 

"John— I— I— I  love  you!" 

"What  is  this  thing,  O  my  love,  that  comes  be 
tween  your  heart  and  mine?  You  say  that  I  am 
wrong;  but  you  know  that  I  think  that  I  am  right. 
Dangers  threaten  Virginia's  existence  as  a  nation; 
our  civilisation  is  involved;  our  generation  must 
begin  a  desperate  struggle  for  the  very  life  of  our 
country.  But  the  debt  is  a  mere  passing  incident. 
I  believe  that  my  plan  provides  a  way  for  its  settle 
ment  by  which  the  creditors  may  receive  all  that 
Virginia  owes  to  them.  By  suspending  payment  for 
ten  years  the  people  will  be  able  to  develop  the  nat 
ural  resources  of  our  country,  and  the  resulting  in 
crease  in  taxable  properties  will  be  great  enough  to 
enable  us  to  pay  the  creditors  without  seriously  dis 
turbing  our  financial  condition.  But  my  plan  has  a 
broader  purpose,  broader  than  its  humane  features: 
the  people  need  rest.  With  rest  will  come  restora 
tion  of  government  by  the  gentry.  I  believe  that  the 
weapon  that  Virginia  should  use  in  her  struggle  to 


i44  THE    BETRAYAL 

maintain  her  identity  as  a  nation  is  a  people  such  as 
we  have  had  for  nearly  three  hundred  years — con 
tented,  each  in  his  own  sphere.  These  are  affairs 
of  state,  intricate,  requiring  the1  closest  attention  of 
students  of  economics  and  the  united  wisdom  of  all 
that  love  Virginia,  dear,  not  questions  for  a  young 
girl  to  answer.  You  would  be  the  last  to  have  me 
debase  myself — to  act  contrary  to  my  conscience. 
My  duty  is  to  Virginia." 

She  listened  intently  while  the  young  man  ex 
plained  his  plans  in  detail.  Then,  as  she  did  not 
speak  when  he  paused,  he  continued: 

"  That  evening  a  year  ago  when  we  plighted  our 
troth  we  became  man  and  wife  in  our  own  hearts. 
The  marriage  ceremony  could  not  have  made  our 
love  more  sacred  nor  our  troth  more  binding  than  did 
the  vows  that  we  made  to  each  other.  Suppose  that 
we  had  stood  before  God's  altar  and  that  you  had 
said  to  me,  '  I,  Lelia,  take'  thee,  John,  to  be  my 
wedded  husband,  to  have  and  to  hold  from  this  day 
forward,  for  better  for  worse,  for  richer  for  poorer, 
in  sickness  and  in  health,  to  love,  cherish,  and  to 
obey,' — had  you  made  those  vows,  Lelia,  would  you 
now  put  asunder  those  whom  God  had  joined  to 
gether?  Would  you  permit  any  person  or  anything 
to  come  between  your  love  and  mine?  You  might 
have  followed  me  to  the  door  of  some  prison  cell 
and  there  have  waited  until  I  should  be  released,  but 
you  would  not  have  deserted  me — you  would  not 
have  deserted  your  husband.  I  ask  you  again,  dear: 
Had  you  made  those  vows,  would  you  have  been 
more  sacredly  bound  than  you  are  by  the  promises 
that  you  made  to  me  during  the  year  of  our  engage 
ment?  Are  not  the  bonds  that  bind  us  as  sacred  in 


THE     BETRAYAL  145 

our  eyes  and  God's  as  any  vows  that  have  been  made 
before  His  altar?  Is  the  love-chain  that  binds  us  so 
weak  as  to  break  under  this  strain?  O  my  love,  my 
love,  my  love,  that  can  not  be — I  know,  for  I  know 
you,  Lelia !  I  know  that  you  could  not  have  made 
those  vows  irreverently." 

"Don't,  John!  Oh,  don't,  don't,  don't!" 
"Where  lies  your  duty,  O  my  heart?  Is  it  here 
with  your  husband — your  husband  before  God  if  not 
before  man;  or  is  your  duty  to  a  rule  of  human  con 
duct — a  rule  made  by  men,  which  must  change  to 
meet  the  requirements  of  men?  Laws  were  made 
for  mani,  not  man  for  laws.  That  nothing  is  wrong 
in  itself  is  elemental  philosophy.  A  code  of  rules 
that  governs  men  in  their  relations  to  one  another 
has  been  evolved  out  of  the  experience  of  ages;  but 
those  rules  are  not  the  laws  of  Medes  and  Persians. 
They  are  not  laws  at  all,  but  rules,  which  must  vary 
with  changing  conditions,  and  which  must  be  adapted 
to  the  needs  of  men." 

"That  may  be  elemental  philosophy,  John, — I 
don't  know — oh,  I  don't  know !  I  am  not  a  philoso 
pher.  But  I  do  know  that  it  is  wrong  to  steal.  And  I 
know  that  God's  commands  are  laws,  not  mere  rules 
of  human  conduct — is  that  what  you  lawyers  say, 
John  dear,  rules  of  human  conduct?  I  love  you. 
.  .  .  I  can  never  tell  you  how  much  I  love  you.  .  .  . 
I  thought  that  I  would  always  know  the  difference 
between  right  and  wrong.  .  .  .  But  now  I  do  not 
know  what  to  do.  I  wish  to  bear  all  your  trials, 
dear — all,  all,  all !  and  those  that  I  am  unable  to 
bear  alone  I  want  to  share  with  you.  .  .  .  That  is 
my  selfish  wish.  .  .  But  there  is  something  here, 
John,  deep,  deep,  down  in  my  heart,  which  says  No; 


146  THE    BETRAYAL 

which  says  that  I  must  be  true  to  something  that 
is  even  higher  than  you,  John,  to  something  that  is 
even  higher  than  Virginia, — which  says  that  I  must 
be  true  to  myself." 

"But  are  you  true  to  yourself,  Lelia?  Before 
you  answer,  ask  yourself  if  you  would  have  kept 
your  marriage  vows  had  you  spoken  them  at  the 
altar." 

"  I  have  asked  myself,  John, — oh,  I  have  asked 
myself  that  question  every  day,  every  hour,  every 
minute — since  you  made  that  speech — ten  days  ago 
— ten  years  ago !  Sometimes  I  think  that  I  would 
have  returned  to  father  and  mother.  Sometimes  I 
think  that  you  never  would  have  done  this  thing  if 
I  had  been  your  wife.  Sometimes  I  think  that  I  am 
wrong — oh,  so  wrong!  .  .  .  One  night  I  went 
down  to  father's  room  to  ask  him  to  send  you  a  mes 
sage.  Then  I  crept  back — through  the  darkness, 
back  to  my  room." 

"  O  my  Lelia,  my  gentle  Lelia !  And  I  may  not 
take  this  cup  of  sorrow  from  you !  " 

And  John  Harrison  knelt  down  and  clasped  the 
hand  of  the  woman  that  he  loved,  in  a  cruel  grasp; 
and  this  time  Lelia  Braxton  knelt  down  too — before 
the  God  of  her  people. 

"  Almighty  God, — O  Jesus — O  Christ, — show  me 
the  way!" 


CHAPTER  FOUR 

A  THOUGH  Captain  James  Spotswood 
Temple  had  agreed  to  unite  his  fortunes 
with  those  of  the  Readjusters,  he  had  not 
fully  decided  to  do  so  at  the  end  of  his  interview 
with  General  Timothy  Murphy.  True,  the  lower 
classes  already  had  broken  from  the  moorings  that 
for  nearly  three  hundred  years  had  bound  them  to 
an  inflexible  social  system,  while  the  gentry  as  a 
class  had  reached  the  last  stage  of  senility,  soon  to 
be  followed  by  political  and  physical  dissolution. 
Before  he  went  to  Petersburg  Temple  had  made  up 
his  mind  to  leave  the  death-bed  of  the  aristocracy. 

But  why  a  subordinate  position  in  the  new  party? 
Undoubtedly  he  could  rapidly  advance  to  its  leader 
ship,  along  the  path  of  his  native  ability,  winding 
through  a  garden  of  unusual  opportunity.  But  why 
let  others  enjoy  the  benefits  that  should  be  reserved 
for  himself  alone?  His  self-confidence,  which  had 
never  known  bounds,  was  greatly  strengthened  by 
the  tonic  good  old  Dr.  Murphy  had  administered 
to  him.  Yes,  in  the  name  of  James  Spotswood 
Temple,  he  would  seize  the  land  of  glory  that  was 
stretched  out  before  him.  Many  roads  lead  to 
Rome.  He  would  carefully  select  a  road  to  the 
realm  of  his  fancy  that  he  would  not  find  too  diffi 
cult  for  him  to  travel. 

His  train  reaching  Richmond  while  he  was  in  the 
midst  of  these  dreams,  he  decided  to  stay  in  that  city 
until  he  had  definitely  determined  the  course  that  he 

147 


148  THE    BETRAYAL 

would  take,  then  proceed  to  Warrenton  and  enter 
enthusiastically  into  the  thick  of  the  fight. 

Long  were  his  thoughts  and  high  his  flights  of 
fancy. 

"  I  could  announce  myself  as  an  independent  can 
didate  for  the  governship,  build  up  a  political  or 
ganisation  of  my  own, — the  Progressive  party,1 — 
oust  Murphy  the  cur  and  Jones  the  hound,  then 
gather  their  sheep  into  my  fold.  At  the  same  time  I 
could  demand  and  would  receive  the  support  of  Gary 
Dabney  and  his  Debtpayers,  and  the  aid  of  that  mis 
guided  youth,  John  Harrison,  for  the  gentry  would 
trust  the  honour  of  Virginia  to  the  safe-keeping  of 
General  Temple's  son.  I  could  promise  yeomen  and 
peasants  relief  from  excessive  taxation,  education 
for  their  children  at  the  expense  of  the  common 
wealth,  an  opportunity  to  gain  wealth,  social  posi 
tion,  and  all  things  else  their  hearts  desire;  my 
orators  could  go  secretly  among  the  negroes  and  tell 
them  that  they  would  be  rewarded  with  public  office, 
social  equality,  and  free  education  for  their  children 
by  teachers  of  their  own  race.  I  would  be  elected 
without  much  opposition." 

A  porter  rapped,  but  Temple  did  not  hear  him. 

"A  high  destiny  controls  the  affairs  of  men.  We 
neither  can  bring  about  events  nor  prevent  them 
from  happening.  All  things  come  about  in  logical 
sequence;  for  while  they  appear  to  come  haphazard, 
they  really  reach  us  in  emotional  waves — sometimes 
after  delay,  the  result  of  gradually  accumulated 
pent-up  emotions.  Lincoln  did  not  free  the  slaves. 
The  ultimate  fate  of  Bonaparte  was  written  by 
the  gods  in  the  sky.  As  circumstance  is  the  great 
est  force  that  affects  the  destinies  of  men,  no  man 


THE    BETRAYAL  149 

can  foresee  the  future.  Even  the  Corsican  could  not 
foresee  his  downfall.  No  man  can  predict  with  ac 
curacy  conditions  that  will  exist  a  score  of  years 
hence.  One  can  not  even  tell  the  direction  in  which 
a  city  will  grow,  unfortunately." 

He  could  see  no  flaw  in  his  plan;  still,  the  situation 
ought  to  be  surveyed  critically  from  every  possible 
angle. 

"  Yeomen  and  peasants  prefer  to  be  led  by  a 
gentleman  rather  than  by  one  of  their  kind,  while 
the  contempt  of  negroes  for  po'  white  trash  is  so 
great  that  I  would  find  it  easy  to  kill  any  candidate 
other  than  a  gentleman  that  would  be  so  unwise  as  to 
bid  for  their  votes.  As  Parson  Jones  claims  that  he 
is  the  father  of  readjustment,  naturally  he  hates  Tim 
Murphy  for  having  stolen  his  baby;  so  I  could 
make  those  two  old  dogs  fight  each  other.  A  split 
in  the  Readjuster  party  would  mean  its  annihilation. 
Neither  Murphy  nor  Jones  would  receive  many 
votes  should  each  establish  a  party  of  his  own,  but 
nearly  all  the  Readjuster  sheep  would  flock  into  my 
barnyard.  As  between  Murphy  and  Temple,  Jones 
would  look  to  Temple  for  his  reward;  and  as  he 
knows  that  he  must  render  service  before  he  receives 
pay,  he  will  deliver  the  Baptist  cattle,  who  vote  as  a 
unit,  into  the  Temple  pound.  True,  the  general's 
old  soldiers  must  be  considered;  but  no  soldier  ever 
had  any  affection  for  Murphy,  while  they  all  loved 
my  sire.  And  I  must  not  be  so  modest  as  to  fail 
to  bear  in  mind  my  own  military  record,  which  was 
good  enough  for  a  boy,  for  I  fought  like  the  devil, 
and  did  not  sheathe  my  sword  until  General  Lee 
had  surrendered." 

But  his  thoughts  took  higher  flights.    There  were 


150  THE    BETRAYAL 

other  countries  that  he  could  conquer.  Besides,  he 
ought  to  be  firmly  established  on  his  throne,  for  he 
feared  to  enter  his  kingdom  loaded  down  with  the 
sins  of  the  heterogeneous  mass  that  would  constitute 
his  party.  The  empire  was  within  his  grasp. 

"  I  shall  keep  the  peace  between  the  general  and 
the  parson,  then  gain  the  friendship  of  the  yeomen, 
the  peasants,  and  the  negroes;  bear  the  insults  of  the 
gentry  for  a  while;  take  my  seat  as  governor;  per 
mit  a  bill  to  be  introduced  into  the  legislature  to 
repudiate  the  debt;  secretly  purchase  the  bonds 
through  my  brokers  in  New  York  at  ten  cents  on  the 
dollar  while  the  bill  is  being  debated;  permit  the 
bill  to  pass;  veto  it;  return  it  with  a  ringing  message, 
in  which  I  shall  say  that  the  honour  of  Virginia  must 
be  maintained;  send  a  message  to  the  legislature 
advocating  one  of  several  of  my  plans,  each  of  which 
provides  a  settlement  of  the  debt  honourable  to  Vir 
ginia  and  satisfactory  to  her  creditors;  and  then — • 
amid  the  applause  of  the  whole  people,  including 
leading  Readjusters,  who  will  have  purchased  bonds 
at  ten  cents  on  the  dollar — I  shall  mount  into  the 
national  political  heaven,  wearing  a  halo  of  glory, 
carefully  fitted  to  my  head. 

"  I  shall  be  the  most  notable  personage  in  Ameri 
can  political  life.  Then  I  shall  have  ample  time  in 
which  legally  to  disfranchise  the  negroes,  and  politi 
cally  kill  Tim  Murphy  and  Johnny  Jones.  I  shall 
use  their  dead  selves  as  stepping-stones  to  higher 
things  while  I  am  amalgamating  all  classes  of  white 
voters  into  a-  single  unit.  Then  I  shall  go  to  the  next 
national  Democratic  convention  with  the  solid  south 
united  upon  a  single  man — Governor  Temple.  The 
Democratic  party  will  succeed  in  1884.  Wow-wow- 


THE    BETRAYAL  151 

wow,  hurrah  for  President  Temple  I  A  clever  plan 
—that  by  which  I  shall  force  Murphy,  Jones,  and  all 
other  Repudiators  to  bear  the  odium  of  the  sins  com 
mitted  in  the  name  of  Readjusters.  Another  clever 
idea — that  I  shall  use  their  dead  selves  as  stepping- 
stones  to  the  presidency.  Through  those  old  rogues 
I  shall  pass  down  into  history  as  the  most  beloved 
of  all  Virginia's  governors  and  the  most  notable  of 
the  presidents  of  the  United  States.  I  shall  come 
into  the  possession  of  great  wealth,  and  last,  but  not 
least,  I  shall  wear  a  sparkling  jewel — Lelia  Braxton, 
my  wife — next  to  my  heart." 

He  boarded  a  train  for  Warrentora. 

"Lawd,  Marse  Jeemes!  I  sho'  am  glad  ter  see 
you  back;  but  you  done  come  in  so  sudden-like  you 
done  skeered  me." 

"Any  news,  Bob?" 

"  I  done  hyah,  Marse  Jeemes,  as  how  Mustah 
Berkeley's  gwine  ter  speechify  'bout  'lection  'roun' 
de  Meth'dis'  chu'ch  ter-morrow  night.  But  Lawd, 
Marse  Jeemes,  I's  done  tole  you  suppen  I  oughter 
done  kep'  ter  mahse'f.  Fo'  de  Lawd  sake,  don't  tell; 
cayse  if  you  does,  Mustah  Berkeley  done  up  an'  turn 
me  outen  de  chu'ch." 

"  I  shall  not  tell,  Bob;  but  saddle  my  horse,  for  I 
shall  ride  around  to  see  Berkeley.  I  may  be  able  to 
render  some  assistance.  You  will  attend  the  meet 
ing,  I  suppose?  " 

"  Fo'  de  Lawd  sake,  Marse  Jeemes,  you  ain' 
gwine  speechify  ter  dem  niggers,  is  you?  I's  jes' 
calkerlatin'  'bout  what  ole  marser'd  say." 

Every  atom  a  negro,  Bob  grinned  with  pleasure 
as  he  administered  this  rebuke.  In  his  master's 


152  THE     BETRAYAL 

familiarity  with  him  and  in  his  condescension  to  ad 
dress  a  political  meeting  of  negroes  he  saw  the  dawn 
of  the  day  of  social  equality.  His  words  stung 
Temple  as  though  they  were  daggers  thrust  into 
him.  He  realised  that  the  fight  already  had  begun, 
with  himself  as  his  antagonist. 

When  he  reached  the  parsonage,  a  mile  distant 
from  the  town,  the  voices  that  came  from  within 
convinced  him  that  a  political  conference  was  in 
progress.  A  loud  rap  on  the  door  brought  forth 
the  Reverend  Doctor  Shadrach  Meshech  Abednego 
Berkeley. 

"Hit's  Mistah  Temple,  am  hit  not?" 

The  reverend  gentleman  was  somewhat  alarmed. 
He  had  expected  to  see  a  member  of  his  fold. 

"Come  outside,  Dr.  Berkeley;  I  wish  to  confer 
with  you." 

They  withdrew  to  a  tree  near  by,  the  man  of  God 
bearing  himself  with  great  dignity  the  while. 

"  I  have  been  told  that  you  are  to  preside  over  an 
important  political  meeting  to-morrow  night.  You 
probably  have  heard  from  General  Murphy  that  I 
am  to  take  a  leading  part  in  this  campaign,  that  I 
have  consented  to  be  elected  governor  of  Virginia, 
and  with  his  kind  assistance  and  yours  that  I  prob 
ably  shall  be  elected  president  of  the  United  States. 
You  should  introduce  me  to  your  audience  to-mor 
row  night,  whereupon  I  shall  take  great  pleasure  in 
explaining  to  your  people  some  plans  for  their  wel 
fare  that  were  unfolded  by  General  Murphy  in  my 
recent  interview  with  him.  These  I  shall  have  the 
honour  to  supplement  with  some  views  of  my  own 
that  relate  to  the  social  advancement  of  your  gifted 


THE     BETRAYAL  153 

Equal  to  the  occasion,  Berkeley  acknowledged 
the  graceful  compliment  in  choice  words. 

"  'Deed,  Mistah  Temple,  Fs  corroborated  to  know 
dat  I  ken  'pen'  upon  er  gemman  ob  yo'  quality  ter 
exuberate  me  in  mah  work.  I  wus  discomfuddled 
jes'  now  ter  see  you  at  mah  do';  but  he  sequence  ob 
de  'cays'on  mo'  dan  jestifies  de  profusion  I  'sper'- 
enced  dat  mebby  you  done  obserbed  de  conbersation 
dat  wus  under  debilitation  when  you  knocked  on 
mah  do'.  Ef  you'll  do  me  de  honour  ter  come  in,  I 
shell  tek  pledger  in  mekin'  you  'quainted  wid  some 
ob  de  mos'  perverted  ob  mah  flock." 

"I  thank  you,  Doctor,  I  have  not  time  now;  but 
with  great  pleasure  I  accept  your  kind  invitation  to 
address  the  godly  members  of  your  church  to-mor 
row  night." 

"  Dey'll  be  mos'  pow'ful  obliterated  ter  tek'  de 
consequences  ob  bein'  out-lifted  by  de  mighty  power 
ob  sech  er  obtuse  shep'ud  as  yo'se'f.  I  ken  capitu 
late  on  yo'  bein'  in  de  pulpit,  whar  I's  'vited  two 
udder  white  politikers  ter  'lection  ter  mah  bred- 
eren?" 

"  I  shall  be  there,  Doctor,  I  assure  you.  What 
are  the  names  of  the  two  gentlemen  to  whom  you 
referred?  " 

"  Mistah  Roger  Williams  Stokes  an*  Mistah 
Gawge  Washin'ton  Laf'ette  Simpson.  But,  Mistah 
Temple,  I  mus'  'splain  ter  you  dat  some  ob  de  ol'est 
brederen  in  mah  'suasion,  dem  dat  used  ter  belong 
ter  de  quality,  don'  tek  ter  Mistah  Stokes,  but  calls 
him  dat  nasty  tow-headed  Yankee;  an'  dey  won' 
lis'en  ter  Mistah  Simpson  neither,  cayse  dey  'low 
as  how  he  ain'  neber  had  no  'sperience  wid  quality. 
Hit's  hard  ter  mek  statements  outen  dem  highfer- 


154  THE    BETRAYAL 

lutin'  cullud  pussons,  who  ain'  got  no  use  fo'  'spedi- 
ency.  Mah  flock's  quality,  dey  is.  Dey  jes'  sets  dyah 
an'  shakes  dyah  heads.  But  ef  Guv'ner  Temple's 
son'd  distraction  'em,  dey'd  'spicion  nuttin',  an'  set 
up  an'  say,  A-man,  O  Lawd,  A-man !  " 

"  I  suggest  that  you  extend  an  invitation  to  the 
Reverend  Doctor  Williams,  the  Baptist  clergyman, 
and  his  flock,  to  attend  our  meeting." 

"  Dat's  de  way  ter  talk,  Mistah  Temple.  De  per- 
gressive  lines  in  de  mixed  'semblage  will  be  glad  ter 
culmonate  yo'  'quaintance  an'  mitigate  ter  you  outen 
dyah  feller-cit'zenship — in  dyah  homes  an'  in  de 
chu'ch;  an'  don'  you  fo'git  us  when  you's  er-settin' 
up  er-guv'in'." 

After  shaking  hands  the  two  compatriots  parted, 
Temple  riding  rapidly  home. 

"The  end  justifies  the  means — and  none  of  my 
old  associates  will  know  of  these  things,"  he  said, 
musingly. 

Then  he  whipped  his  horse  furiously,  as  though 
he  would  fly  from  himself. 

The  next  morning  while  on  his  way  to  his  office, 
Captain  Temple  stopped  at  the  store  of  Mr.  James 
P.  Rice,  yeoman,  ostensibly  to  purchase  a  pocket- 
knife  from  the  proprietor,  that  he  might  have  the 
benefit  of  that  gentleman's  knowledge  of  knives,  but 
really  that  he  might  discuss  affairs  political  with  the 
merchant.  Mr.  Rice  had  stepped  out;  so  Captain 
Temple  was  about  to  continue  his  walk  to  his  office 
when  he  saw  Miss  Dorothea  Annabel  Rice,  the 
fourth  and  most  beautiful  of  the  Rice  progeny,  leav 
ing  her  father's  store.  He  hastened  to  help  her  to 
mount  her  horse. 


THE  BETRAYAL 

"When  did  you  return,  Miss  Dorothea  Anna 
bel?" 

That  young  lady  recently  had  been  graduated  from 
Mrs.  Stuart's  school,  in  Staunton,  where  she  had 
been  a  student  for  six  years.  She  had  not  known 
that  Captain  Temple  was  aware  of  her  existence, 
although  doubtless  he  had  seen  her  playing  in  the 
streets  of  Warrenton  when  she  was  a  child. 

"  I  returned  yesterday." 

"  Now  that  you  are  a  young  lady,  please  permit 
me  to  call  to  see  you.  Your  father,  you  know,  was 
my  first  client;  and  ever  since  the  day  that  he  first 
entered  my  office  my  interest  in  the  Rice  family  has 
extended  to  every  member  of  it.  Now,  may  I  add, 
that  interest  is  centred  in  your  very  beautiful  self." 

"  Certainly,  Captain  Temple;  I  shall  be  very  glad 
to  see  you." 

"This  evening?" 

"Yes." 

How  she  trembled!  Why?  She  never  knew. 
She  did  not  resent  Temple's  words.  He  had  been 
sincere,  she  felt  sure;  besides,  his  society  manners 
were  perfect,  she  could  not  doubt. 

In  thinking  that  Temple  was  sincere  she  was  right 
as  well  as  wrong. 

"A  devilish  beautiful  creature,  that  young  per 
son,"  thought  Temple,  as  he  walked  toward  his 
office.  "  Not  like  Lelia  Braxton,  yet  as  beautiful  in 
a  way." 

That  he,  a  gentleman,  would  have  any  difficulty 
in  adding  this  young  girl  to  his  conquests  he  did  not 
for  a  moment  doubt.  He  had  merely  to  treat  her 
as  an  equal,  compliment  her  unstintingly,  and  soon 
she  would  be  his  slave. 


156  THE    BETRAYAL 

"Well,  all  is  fair  in  love  and  war;  so,  my  pretty 
little  Dorothea  Annabel,  love  me  as  much  as  you 
please.  With  that  sweet  love  I  shall  take  into  my 
camp  all  the  Rice  relations  that  vote  and  all  Jimmy's 
other  associates  of  the  masculine  gender.  After  all, 
it  is  better  to  have  loved  and  lost  than  never  to  have 
loved  at  all.  And  so  I  shall  explain,  Dolly  dear,  in 
the  course  of  human  events." 

The  Virginian  merchant  has  always  been  ambi 
tious  to  be  a  land  owner.  Mr.  Rice  was  no  excep 
tion — indeed,  there  has  been  no  exception  to  "  prove 
the  rule."  He  had  been  a  clerk  in  Mr.  Stott's  store, 
in  Warrenton,  from  the  time  that  he  was  thirteen 
until  he  was  twenty-four.  Then  he  had  purchased 
the  business  of  his  employer  for  a  small  sum,  mar 
ried  the  daughter  of  Judge  Braxton's  overseer,  and 
had  saved  money  and  increased  his  business  despite 
the  encumbrances  that  Mrs.  Rice  had  yearly  put 
upon  the  establishment.  She  had  presented  him  with 
fourteen  children  in  rapid  succession.  When  Eu 
genie  Victoria  Rice,  his  oldest  daughter,  had  reached 
the  age  of  eighteen,  a  young  lady,  he  gratified  the 
ambition  that  he  and  Mrs.  Rice  had  cherished  from 
the  day  of  their  wedding  and  purchased  a  farm  of 
three  hundred  acres  along  the  road  between  War 
renton  and  the  Fauquier  White  Sulphur  Springs, 
three  miles  beyond  the  Warrenton  city  limits. 

That  evening — some  of  our  gentle  readers  would 
have  said  afternoon — Captain  Temple  rode  out  to 
the  Rice  plantation.  The  old  mansion,  which  for 
more  than  two  hundred  years  had  been  the  home  of 
a  good  old  Virginian  family,  was  painted  white  by 
Mr.  Rice  after  he  had  caused  the  moss  to  be  scraped 
from  the  brick  walls,  and  now  Captain  Temple  saw 


THE    BETRAYAL  157 

it  gleaming  through  a  vista  of  gigantic  elms.  He 
observed  that  a  roan  horse  was  tied  fast  to  the 
Diana  statue  that  Mr.  Rice  had  placed  as  a  hitching- 
post  at  the  right  of  the  mansion,  and  that  a  white 
horse  was  made  fast  to  a  statue  of  Mercury  that 
Mrs.  Rice  had  placed  at  the  left  of  the  mansion  as 
a  companion  for  his  fair  Diana.  "  Evidently  the 
Rice  girls  have  other  visitors,"  thought  the  captain. 

He  tied  his  horse  to  the  limb  of  a  tree;  then 
made  his  way  to  the  front  verandah.  Flowers  were 
everywhere.  Citronalis,  in  large  pots,  decorated  the 
ground,  geraniums  lined  each  side  of  the  walk,  the 
wild  rose  climbed  the  trellis  that  partly  enclosed 
the  verandah — and  everywhere  Temple  saw  white 
brick.  He  could  not  conceive  that  this  was  the  place 
where  he  had  played  and  fought  as  a  boy. 

"  Captain  Temple — Perfessor  Simpson." 

Thus  Miss  Phyllis  Daphne  Rice  introduced  the 
two  gentlemen  after  she  had  bowed  awkwardly  to 
the  latest  visitor.  As  she  had  never  met  Captain 
Temple,  nor  had  he  ever  been  to  see  any  of  the 
ladies  of  the  Rice  family,  she  assumed  that  he  had 
called  to  see  her  father. 

The  captain's  manner  was  cordial.  Things  were 
coming  his  way  indeed,  he  thought,  for  here  was  an 
opportunity  to  observe  one  of  the  men  that  would 
assist  him  in  folding  Shadrach's  flock. 

Professor  Simpson  arose  to  his  great  height, 
nervously  pulled  at  his  heavy  moustache,  which 
drooped  under  the  burden  of  its  own  weight,  and 
stiffly  bowed  his  head  in  response  to  the  introduction, 
his  hands  behind  his  back. 

The  uncomfortable  Miss  Phyllis  Daphne  was  con 
scious  that  Professor  Simpson's  clothes  hung  upon 


158  THE    BETRAYAL 

him  ungracefully,  and  his  general  largeness  seemed 
unusually  awkward  to  her.  Heretofore  she  had  re 
garded  him  as  a  gentleman  of  exceptional  grace  and 
culture — a  man  among  men,  indeed,  who  towered 
above  the  men  of  her  acquaintance. 

"Is  Miss  Dorothea  Annabel  at  home?" 

Captain  Temple  asked  this  question  of  Miss 
Phyllis  Daphne  as  though  he  had  been  accustomed 
to  call  on  her  sister. 

The  fair  Dorothea  Annabel  purposely  had  not 
come  down  to  welcome  her  guest.  To  do  so  she 
thought  would  be  unmaidenly;  so  she  had  watched 
Captain  Temple  as  he  approached,  then  waited, 
trembling  the  while,  until  she  should  hear  the  formal 
announcement  of  his  arrival. 

Miss  Phyllis  Daphne  went  through  the  open  door 
that  led  from  the  verandah  into  the  hall,  proceeded 
to  the  foot  of  the  old  mahogany  stair,  now  painted 
white,  and  raised  her  voice  to  a  high  pitch. 

"Dorothea  Annabel!  Dorothea  Annabel! 
Dolly!  O  Dorothea  Annabel!" 

"Well?" 

"  Company's  come  !  " 

Miss  Phyllis  Daphne  had  not  had  the  school  ad 
vantages  of  her  younger  sister.  Unfortunately,  her 
rasping  voice  had  carried  farther  than  she  had  in 
tended;  and  now  the  whole  Rice  tribe  of  males  and 
females  under  the  age  of  fifteen  came  upon  the  ver 
andah  from  every  direction,  their  bare  feet  and  legs 
as  well  as  their  clothes  stained  with  Fauquier  county 
soil.  The  children  hurriedly  arranged  chairs  in  a 
semi-circle  facing  the  stranger,  got  into  them,  swung 
their  feet  in  pendulum  movements,  staring  at  him  the 
while,  and  merely  winking  their  eyes  as  they  would 


THE     BETRAYAL  159 

shut  their  mouths  now  and  then  with  great  gulps, 
that  they  might  relieve  their  tense  muscles.  They 
did  not  speak  to  him. 

While  waiting  for  Miss  Dorothea  Annabel,  who 
did  not  appear  for  at  least  ten  minutes  after  her  sis 
ter  had  called  to  her,  Temple  made  use  of  his  op 
portunity  and  drew  the  professor  out  of  the  cold  of 
his  reserve. 

"I  am  glad  to  meet  you,  my  dear  Professor; 
indeed,  more  so  than  I  can  say,  for  I  have  heard  a 
great  deal  about  your  excellent  work  as  an  educator. 
The  nigger  parson,  Shad,  tells  me  that  you  and  I 
are  running  in  the  same  political  chase.  I  shall  try 
to  help  you  tree  a  few  coons  to-night,  when  I  shall 
deliver  an  oration,  which  will  be  followed  by  your 
voice  thundering  out  the  principles  of  democratic 
government.  Do  you  know,  Professor,  no  sweeter 
music  falls  upon  the  ears  of  a  Virginian  gentleman 
than  the  voice  of  a  dog  that  has  just  chased  a  coon 
up  a  tree?  " 

Instantly  the  ice  melted.  The  professor  became 
natural,  even  confidential.  A  great  prize,  he  knew, 
must  have  been  offered  Temple,  or  he  would  not 
have  entered  the  Readjuster  party. 

"What  office  will  you  run  for,  Captain?" 

"  I  am  not  ambitious,  Professor.  Still,  I  have 
promised  Governor  Murphy — at  a  great  sacrifice  of 
my  personal  interest — to  accept  the  nomination  for 
governor;  and  circumstances  may  oblige  me — for  the 
best  interest  of  the  party — to  represent  Virginia  in 
the  Senate,  in  Washington,  while  some  of  my  friends 
are  urging  me  to  go  before  the  next  national  Demo 
cratic  convention  as  the  choice  of  the  solid  south 
for  the  presidency." 


160  THE    BETRAYAL 

Captain  Temple  spoke  in  the  tones  of  one  confi 
dent  of  his  position,  yet  with  the  dignity  of  the  gen 
tleman  that  addresses  his  social  equals,  who  has  a 
deep  sense  of  the  responsibility  that  they  had  obliged 
him  to  assume. 

Miss  Dorothea  Annabel  appeared  in  time  to  hear 
Captain  Temple's  modest  words. 

The  captain  bowed  low  over  the  hand  of  the 
lovely  Dorothea  Annabel,  who  was  dressed  in  her 
prettiest  gown — a  creation  of  her  own.  She  was  a 
beautiful  picture  as  she  stood  there  in  sweet  con 
fusion  mingled  with  pride.  Professor  Simpson  and 
Miss  Phyllis  Daphne  were  not  the  only  persons  pres 
ent  that  felt  exultation. 

"Shall  we  go  for  a  walk  about  the  grounds?" 

Miss  Dorothea  accepted  the  captain's  invitation. 

"  How  lovely  you  are,  Miss  Dorothea  Annabel ! 
Is  there  any  flower  in  this  garden  nearly  so  beautiful? 
Are  any  of  God's  angels  in  heaven  so  fair,  so  grace 
ful?  Was  ever  a  voice  so  musical  as  yours? — now 
soft  as  some  organ  whispering  low  tones  of  love, 
now  like  the  joyous  laughter  of  the  rippling  brook, 
now  suggesting  the  music  of  the  nymphs  of  the 
forest.  Your  cheeks  shame  the  wild  rose  that 
nestles  in  your  hair,  and  your  white  dress  symbolises 
your  beautiful  soul — for  it  seems  to  be  a  part  of 
your  own  loveliness." 

Never  had  Miss  Dorothea  Annabel  heard  such 
words.  Pausing  by  a  rose-bush,  in  full  bloom, 
she  had  stood  with  her  crimson  face  averted.  Is 
this  a  declaration  of  love,  she  asked  herself,  or  do 
all  gentlemen  speak  in  that  way  to  ladies?  That  he 
meant  all  that  he  had  said  she  was  sure.  She  would 


THE     BETRAYAL  161 

treat  him  playfully — yes,  that  is  what  she  should  do. 
So  she  broke  off  a  rose  and  tossed  it  to  him  as  she 
led  the  way  to  one  of  the  seats  where  they  could  be 
concealed  by  heliotrope  and  citronalis.  Temple 
stuck  the  rose  in  the  lapel  of  his  coat,  saying  that 
he  would  place  it  next  to  his  heart.  As  he  did  so 
loud  laughter  was  heard  coming  through  the  parlour 
window. 

"Who  besides  Professor  Simpson  is  here?" 

There  was  a  note  of  contempt  in  Miss  Dorothea 
Annabel's  voice  as  she  answered;  but  Temple  invol 
untarily  looked  pleased — at  least  his  pleasure  seemed 
to  be  involuntary. 

"I  just  can  not  stand  him!  Eugenie  Victoria 
seems  to  like  him,  though." 

She  wished  to  be  certain  that  Captain  Temple 
would  not  think  that  she  took  pleasure  in  the  society 
of  men  like  Professor  Simpson  and  Mr.  Stokes. 

As  Captain  Temple  wished  to  take  the  full  meas 
ure  of  the  two  white  men  who  in  addition  to  himself 
would  address  the  negro  voters  that  night,  he  re 
luctantly  suspended  his  flirtation. 

"  I  should  like  to  meet  Mr.  Stokes." 

Miss  Dorothea  Annabel  was  surprised. 

"Why?" 

"  He  has  been  a  resident  of  Fauquier  for  many 
years,  and  there  are  few  men  in  this  county  that  are 
not  known  to  me  personally." 

"Well, — he  is  tall — thin — ugly — uninteresting; 
rolls  his  r's  this  way,  r-r-r-r-r;  says  '  seen '  for  '  saw' 
• — and  is  like  all  other  Yankees." 

"  Colonel  Daingerfield  would  have  described  him 
as  a  naturalised  carpet-bagger." 


162  THE     BETRAYAL 

"  He  is  naturalised — at  least  he  has  bought  the 
little  farm  that  used  to  belong  to  Mr.  Sims.  You 
wouldn't  care  for  him  in  the  least,  I'm  quite  sure." 

"  But  I  do  care  for  you,"  said  Captain  Temple, 
resuming  his  flirtation.  "  I  have  lived  but  a  few 
hours, — since  ten  this  morning,  to  be  exact, — yet  it 
seems  to  me,  Dorothea,  that  I  have  crowded  the  joy 
of  a  long  life  into  that  short  time.  May  I  come  to 
see  you,  Dorothea, — often?" 

"As  often  as  you  please." 

Miss  Dorothea  spoke  banteringly,  yet  she  was  in 
earnest.  Yes,  this  gentleman  knew  the  social  way; 
so  she  could  follow  his  lead  in  polite  usages.  Be 
sides,  she  was  in  love  with  him  already. 

"There  is  not  a  girl  in  all  Virginia  half  so  fair  as 
you,  Dorothea, — my  beautiful  little  Dolly." 

"  Do  you  think  that  you  ought  to  call  me  Doro 
thea,  Captain  Temple?" 

"  I  think  of  you  as  Dorothea.  That  is  a  very 
beautiful  name.  Yes,  I  must  call  you  Dorothea, 
when  we  are  alone,  with  Dolly  for  short,  now  and 
then,  even  if  that  be  just  a  wee  bit  naughty." 

'  You  society  gentlemen  always  say  such  flattering 
things.  One  never  can  tell  just  when  to  believe 
you." 

"  I  am  in  earnest — deadly  in  earnest.  But  you  are 
something  of  a  fraud,  for  you  are  not  the  unsophis 
ticated  country  girl  that  you  would  have  me  believe. 
Did  you  meet  society  men  at  Mrs.  Stuart's?'' 

"No,  indeed  I  didn't!  The  teachers  were  very 
strict — everybody  in  Staunton  knows  how  very,  very 
strict.  But  I've  visited  my  schoolmates  in  several 
cities — I  have  been  out  of  Fauquier  a  time  or 
two." 


THE    BETRAYAL  163 

"  Never  shall  Virginia  permit  her  beautiful  daugh 
ters  to  leave  her  bosom  to  settle  permanently  else 
where." 

The  blushes  on  Miss  Dorothea's  soft  cheeks  deep 
ened. 

"  But  she  has  so  many  beautiful  daughters,  Vir 
ginia  has;  I  think  she  can  spare  a  few." 

"Then  you  are  engaged?" 

"  I  didn't  say  so." 

"  But  that  is  what  you  meant." 

"  No,  I  didn't — honestly,  Captain  Temple.  I 
shall  never  be  engaged." 

Miss  Eugenie  Victoria  Rice's  voice  now  came 
through  the  parlour  window. 

"  Dorothea  Annabel !  Dorothea  Annabel!  Ain't 
you  and  your  gent'man  friend  comin'  in  to  get  no 
refreshments?" 

"Come,  Dolly;  I  am  hungry." 

When  Miss  Dorothea  Annabel  saw  that  the  cap 
tain  had  not  been  shocked  by  her  sister's  unconven 
tional  speech  the  reaction  from  shame  made  her 
heart  bound. 

This  was  not  the  kind  of  girl  whose  feelings  Cap 
tain  Temple  would  hurt,  even  for  a  moment.  He 
treated  social  blunders  and  errors  in  speech,  when  he 
cared  to  do  so,  as  though  he  had  not  noticed  them, 
or  as  permissible  violations  of  a  code  foolishly 
strict. 

No  sooner  had  Mrs.  Rice  heard  that  Captain 
Temple  had  called  to  see  her  daughter  than  she 
began  preparations  for  afternoon  tea.  Her  table 
was  soon  loaded  with  fried  chicken,  cold  ham,  cold 
mutton,  chicken  salad,  sardines,  beaten  biscuits,  but 
ter  in  fancy  individual  prints,  three  kinds  of  cake, 


1 64  THE    BETRAYAL 

lemonade,    and   cherry   bounce.      No   mean   hostess 
was  Mrs.  Rice. 

Although  the  Rice  dwelling  was  larger  and  more 
expensively  furnished  than  the  home  of  any  other 
yeoman  family  in  Fauquier  county,  it  was  no  more 
comfortable  than  the  cabin  of  the  humblest  peasant 
in  Virginia — nor  nearly  so  comfortable;  for  the  only 
room  in  which  any  member  of  the  family  felt  at 
home  was  the  kitchen.  Mrs.  Rice  always  shuddered 
when  she  entered  the  parlour;  but  there  she  sat  a 
part  of  each  day,  a  sacrifice  laid  on  the  altar  of  so 
ciety — the  good  martyr-mother  that  she  was.  Mrs. 
Rice  never  knew  why  she  shuddered;  nor  did  she 
know  that  she  shuddered;  nor  do  your  narrators 
know  why  she  shuddered,  for  the  parlour  was  full 
of  the  Rice  taste — a  new  table  was  in  the  centre  of 
the  room,  a  new  huge  family  Bible  was  on  the  table, 
and  so  was  a  new  illustrated  book  written  by  a  mis 
sionary;  a  new  square  piano  that  no  Rice  could  play 
was  in  a  corner  of  the  room,  and  on  one  end  of 
the  piano  was  a  new  vase  filled  with  beautiful  new 
paper  flowers,  and  on  the  other  end  was  a  new  huge 
leather-bound  album  full  of  family  photographs; 
gold  tassels  hung  from  the  new  green  velvet  lam 
brequin  that  shrouded  the  mantel;  new  perfect  wax 
fruit  under  a  new  glass  globe  decorated  one  corner 
of  the  mantel,  and  a  new  vase  filled  with  golden 
grass  decorated  the  other  end;  a  new  crayon  por 
trait  of  Mr.  James  P.  Rice,  on  a  new  oak  easel, 
draped  with  soft  yellow  silk,  greeted  every  person 
that  entered  the  room,  and  never  got  done  with 
the  hospitable  greeting;  ;*  new  couch  and  a  great 
many  new  chairs  were  upholstered  in  green  plush 
(a  few  new  gold  chairs  were  upholstered  in  red  to 


THE    BETRAYAL  165 

add  colour  to  the  surroundings,  chairs  which  were 
not  used  for  any  other  purpose)  ;  some  of  the  many 
new  tidies  were  crocheted  by  Mrs.  Rice  herself,  and 
others  were  embroidered  in  colours  by  Miss  Doro 
thea  Annabel — a  parlour  that  would  have  pleased 
any  Virginian  yeoman.  Yet  Mrs.  Rice  unknowingly 
shuddered  whenever  she  entered  the  room,  and,  gen 
tle  reader,  your  narrators  know  not  why. 

Miss  Dorothea  Annabel  and  Captain  Temple  en 
tered  the  parlour.  There  the  captain  was  intro 
duced  to  Miss  Eugenie  Victoria  Rice  and  Mr.  Roger 
Williams  Stokes. 

Assuming  an  air  of  superiority,  Mr.  Stokes  ac 
knowledged  the  introduction  by  nodding  his  head, 
for  gentlemen  of  his  type  think  that  familiarity  in 
dicates  gentle  breeding.  His  face  was  the  map  of 
New  England.  Like  all  Vermonters,  his  mouth 
was  the  shape  of  a  dollar  mark.  No  Virginian  has 
ever  observed  the  teeth  of  a  New  Englander — man 
or  woman — without  wondering  how  long  since  those 
teeth  had  tested  the  metal  of  some  coin.  Had  he 
lived  in  our  time  his  voice,  which  had  all  the  melody 
of  a  nail  in  contact  with  a  revolving  saw,  would  have 
been  a  symphony  in  the  ears  of  Dr. — er — what-you- 
may-call-him — Dr.  Freeman's  wife,  to  whom  the 
Virginian's  "drawl"  is  offensive.  Mr.  Stokes 
was • 

Your  pardon,  gentle  reader,  for  this  interruption; 
but  the  name  of  the  leading  "  authoress "  of  New 
England  of  our  period,  whenever  mentioned,  must 
bring  to  your  mind  as  it  does  to  ours  some  of  the 
elements  of  the  widely-advertised  literature  of  her 
geographical  division  of  these  states  that  are  more 
or  less  united. 


1 66  THE    BETRAYAL 

Is  chastity  unknown  in  New  England?  No,  say 
•Virginians,  despite  the  writings  of  New  England's 
novelists  and  playwrights  all  New  England's  women 
are  not  impure.  Her  books  and  plays  are  untrue— 
not  her  women. 

Awake,  ye  sons  and  daughters  of  New  England, 
your  literature  is  in  danger! 

Time  was  when  your  women  were  seduced  by 
men  like  the  Reverend  Arthur  Dimmesdale,  and 
the  women  that  were  seduced  were  of  the  Mistress 
Hester  Prynne  kind.  Now  your  women,  seduced  by 
louts,  behave  like  kitchen  wenches. 

Always  chroniclers  of  illicit  sexual  dalliance,  now 
the  New  England  novelist  imitates  Mrs.  Freeman 
instead  of  Hawthorne;  and  we  are  told  that  life  in 
New  England  is  further  reflected  by  "  The  Old 
Homestead,"  '"Way  Down  East,"  "Shore  Acres," 
and  plays  of  that  kind. 

Your  narrators,  again  thanking  you  for  your  in 
dulgence,  will  return  to  Mr.  Stokes.  That  shadow 
of  New  England  was  short,  thin,  and  red-headed; 
his  hair  was  cropped  close,  as  though  he  wished  to 
suppress  it;  his  face  seemed  to  be  tied  into  a  knot, 
the  impression  thus  given  doubtless  arising  from  the 
peculiar  topography  of  New  England;  his  collar  had 
immense  dog-ears,  and  his  cravat,  store-made  into 
a  bow,  was  a  vivid  green,  blending  beautifully  with 
the  colour  of  his  hair  and  face.  Captain  Temple 
felt  sure  that  Mr.  Stokes  was  capable  of  all  the 
flexibility  that  the  Readjustee  party  required  of  its 
leaders,  and  marked  him  as  a  man  to  be  cultivated. 

Dr.  Reginald  Launcelot  Rice,  who  recently  had 
returned  from  Princeton,  where  he  had  taken  his 
Ph.  D.,  was  now  presented  to  the  distinguished  vis- 


THE    BETRAYAL  167 

itor.  After  shaking  hands  with  the  utmost  hearti 
ness  and  familiarity,  the  doctor  placed  his  hand 
affectionately  on  Temple's  shoulder.  The  captain 
observed  that  the  young  man's  hair  was  carefully 
parted  in  the  middle,  plastered  down  on  each  side, 
and  slightly  pushed  back  from  the  forehead,  the 
style  in  which  the  gentlemen  of  Baltimore  still  wear 
their  hair.  This  indicated  that  Dr.  Reginald 
Launcelot  to  some  extent  had  studied  the  Virginian 
gentlemen,  and  Temple  smiled  as  he  thought  of  a 
few  remarks  Colonel  Daingerfield  once  made,  and 
wondered  if  by  chance  they  had  been  repeated  to 
the  young  yeoman.  The  colonel  had  referred  to 
Dr.  Smythe,  Mr.  Carter's  rival. 

"Zounds,  man!  "  he  had  said,  "that  imitator  does 
not  know  enough  to  part  his  hair  in  the  middle.  The 
balance  of  his  body  is  parted  that  way;  his  face  is 
between  his  two  ears;  his  nose  is  between  his  two 
eyes;  his  body  is  located  between  his  two  arms;  his 
heart,  if  he  has  one,  is  on  his  left  side,  his  gall,  which 
he  has  in  abundance,  is  on  his  right  side;  but  he  must 
part  his  hair  just  above  his  left  ear,  like  all  other 
plebeians.  Sirs,  when  our  misguided  country  left  her 
dear  old  mother,  our  peasantry,  to  show  their  supe 
riority  to  Englishmen  and  to  all  other  peoples  of 
the  earth,  parted  their  hair  on  the  side,  and  did 
many  other  foolish  things.  No  gentleman  of  any 
land,  except  Yankeeland,  parts  his  hair  on  the  side." 

Dr.  Reginald  Launcelot  had  ploughed  the  corn 
fields  of  his  father's  new  farm  until  five  years  be 
fore,  when  he  entered  William  and  Mary,  where 
three  years  later  he  took  his  bachelor's  degree. 
Then  he  matriculated  at  the  University  of  Virginia, 
and  at  the  end  of  one  session  was  awarded  the  mas- 


1 68  THE    BETRAYAL 

ter's  degree.  He  attended  lectures  at  Princeton  the 
next  scholastic  year,  then  returned  to  Warrenton  to 
make  his  father's  home  his  own,  the  degree  of  doc 
tor  of  philosophy  in  his  pocket.  Dr.  Reginald 
Launcelot  had  taken  five  years  to  travel  from  the 
corn-fields  of  Fauquier  county  all  the  way  to  Prince 
ton,  through  the  halls  of  that  great  institution,  back 
to  his  father's  home.  But  he  had  taken  refresh 
ments  along  the  road,  had  rested  three  months  every 
summer,  had  a  month  of  holidays  during  each  scho 
lastic  year,  and  had  not  laboured  on  Sundays. 

Was  Dr.  Reginald  Launcelot  a  youth  of  unusual 
gifts  that  he  should  take  three  degrees,  including  the 
highest  degree  that  is  awarded  by  Princeton,  in  five 
years?  No,  gentle  reader;  other  youths  have  sur 
passed  his  record  many  times  and  oft  in  later  years; 
the  voice  of  the  people  has  been  heard  in  the  public 
institutions  of  Virginia,  and  those  of  other  nations 
also,  and  the  youths  attending  William  and  Mary, 
the  University  of  Virginia,  and  Princeton  yearly  are 
becoming  more  and  more  scholarly.  Your  narrators 
confidently  expect  the  young  man  of  the  future  to 
take  the  degree  of  Ph.  D.  from  Princeton,  by  way 
of  the  nursery,  by  way  of  William  and  Mary,  by 
way  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  in  a  single  scho 
lastic  year — by  proxy.  Our  expectations  are  based 
on  reason,  as  you  may  agree,  when  you  examine  the 
record  of  one  James  S.  Wilson,  born  November  12, 
1880,  in  Surry  county,  Virginia.  We  will  quote  his 
record  as  printed  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  College  of 
William  and  Mary,  Vol.  I,  No.  i,  p.  13,  as  follows: 

He  [James  S.  Wilson]  encered  William  and  Mary  Col 
lege  in  1901  and  was  graduated  in  1904  with  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Arts.  In  1904  he  attended  the  University  of 


THE     BETRAYAL  169 

Virginia,  and  in  one  session  was  granted  the  Master's  de 
gree  in  the  department  [«V]  of  History,  English  Language, 
Literature  and  Philosophy.  An  equally  remarkable  record 
was  made  the  following  session,  1905-06,  at  Princeton  Uni 
versity  where  he  was  granted  his  Ph.D.,  in  the  Department 
[j/V]  of  English,  Philosophy  and  History.  The  Board  of 
Visitors  of  William  and  Mary  College,  in  June,  1906, 
elected  Dr.  Wilson  Assistant  Professor  in  the  department 
of  English  and  History. 

Dr.  Wilson,  who  is  a  young  man  of  high  char 
acter,  your  narrators  have  been  told,  was  educated 
by  "  a  young  lady-teacher  "  until  ten  years  of  age, 
when  he  went  to  the  free  school  at  Smithfield,  in 
the  backwoods  of  Isle  of  Wight  county.  After  de 
ducting  from  each  of  the  five  years  the  summer  va 
cation  of  three  months,  Thanksgiving,  Christmas, 
Easter,  and  other  holidays,  amounting  to  a  month, 
and  the  Sundays  of  eight  months,  say  thirty-two 
Sundays,  we  find  that  Dr.  Wilson  travelled  his  royal 
road  in  less  than  three  years — through  William  and 
Mary,  through  the  University  of  Virginia,  through 
Princeton.  He  is  now  a  learned  doctor  of  philos 
ophy. 

Dr.  Reginald  Launcelot  Rice  was  drunk.  He 
had  been  drunk  since  the  day  that  he  was  called 
from  the  plough  to  take  a  high  position  in  the  new 
aristocracy.  A  member  of  the  Society  of  the  Cin 
cinnati, — membership  in  which  is  the  peasant's  pat 
ent  to  gentility, — he  had  not  yet  decided  upon  a 
career,  but  thought  of  the  church,  politics,  or  a  col 
lege  professorship.  He  also  thought  of  doing 
nothing. 

Having  rung  the  dinner  bell,  Mrs.  Rice,  a  peas 
ant  by  birth,  entered  the  parlour. 


170  THE    BETRAYAL 

"  I  certainly  feels  highly  honoured,  Cap'n  Tem 
ple,  to  make  your  distinguished  acquaintance." 

'  The  honour,  my  dear  Mrs.  Rice,  which  is  very 
great,  you  have  conferred  upon  me." 

"Law,  Cap'n,  but  you  du-u-u  say  sech  beautiful 
things !  Now  you  all  come  right  into  the  dining- 
room.  There  ain't  much  to  eat,  but  maybe  there'll 
be  enough  to  quench  your  hunger  till  supper- 
time." 

Professor  George  Washington  Lafayette  Simp 
son  awkwardly  offered  his  arm  to  Mrs.  Rice.  They 
led  the  way  to  the  dining-room,  followed  by  Mr. 
Roger  Williams  Stokes  and  Miss  Eugenie  Victoria, 
Dr.  Reginald  Launcelot  and  Miss  Phyllis  Daphne, 
Captain  James  Spotswood  Temple  and  Miss  Doro 
thea  Annabel,  and  the  ten  younger  Rices,  who,  hav 
ing  been  drilled  to  the  stair-step  movement,  entered 
the  dining-room  in  Indian  file.  Taking  her  place 
at  the  head  of  the  table,  which  was  formally  set, 
Mrs.  Rice  looked  inquiringly  at  Miss  Dorothea 
Annabel,  then  hesitatingly  toward  the  guest  of 
honour. 

"  Cap'n  Temple,  won't  you  be  so  kind  an'  obligin' 
as  to  ask  a  blessin'?" 

"  O  Lord — er — er — O  Lord — er — er — we  beseech 
Thee — make  us  truly  thankful  for  what  we  are 
about  to  receive — in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord,  Amen !  " 

Poor  Miss  Dorothea  Annabel !  But  the  captain 
had  been  equal  to  the  occasion.  His  reverential 
manner  made  her  believe  that  it  was  customary  in 
fashionable  society  to  thank  the  Lord  for  afternoon 
teas.  (Your  narrators  feel  sure  that  they  never 
have  been  thankful  for  them.)  She  felt  unworthy 


THE    BETRAYAL  171 

of  this  noble  man,  who  evidently  took  God  with 
him  in  his  daily  life. 

Captain  Temple,  who  had  dined  quite  heartily  at 
two,  was  prepared  to  make  a  politician's  sacrifice. 
He  ate  a  piece  of  chicken;  a  slice  of  ham;  a  slice 
of  mutton;  a  large  helping  of  chicken  salad;  passed 
back  for  another  piece  of  ham;  ate  three  biscuits; 
praised  the  butter;  said  that  he  had  never  tasted 
pickles  nearly  so  good,  and  refused  the  sardines 
merely  because  they  had  not  been  prepared  by  Mrs. 
Rice's  own  hands. 

"  Really,  Mrs.  Rice,  are  you  in  earnest  when  you 
say  that  this  is  not  Smithfield  ham,  but  one  of  your 
own  curing?  " 

"  Law,  Cap'n,  Smithfield  hams  ain't  nothin'  to 
my  hams.  I  never  thought  nothin'  of  Smithfield 
hams  nohow." 

"  Indeed  you  are  right,  Mrs.  Rice;  at  least  I  have 
never  tasted  a  Smithfield  ham  nearly  so  good  as 
yours.  Now  you  will  not  mind  if  I  take  still  an 
other  little  piece,  will  you?" 

No  sacrifice  had  been  too  great  for  Mrs.  Rice  to 
make  for  her  children.  She  had  become  a  member 
of  every  patriotic  society  that  Warrenton  women 
had  organised  since  the  war,  in  the  hope  of  improv 
ing  the  social  standing  of  her  sons  and  daughters — 
and  herself.  Indeed,  did  a  Virginian  woman  evefr 
enter  a  patriotic  society  who  did  not  do  so  to  reap 
thereby  social  advantages  for  herself  or  her  family? 
This  excellent  lady — like  those  that  followed  her, 
who  formed  the  association  known  as  the  Daughters 
of  the  American  Revolution — did  not  know  that  she 
announced  her  plebeian  origin  when  she  submitted 
proof  to  show  her  qualifications  to  belong  to  a  so- 


172  THE     BETRAYAL 

ciety  composed  of  the  descendants  of  those  that 
fought  for  the  independence  of  the  American  col 
onies.  She  did  not  know  that  the  gentry  of  Vir 
ginia,  with  a  few  exceptions,  had  been  faithful  to  the 
crown.  She  decorated  her  stationery  with  the  em 
blem  of  one  of  the  societies  of  the  daughters  of 
Virginian  overseers,  then  wrote  many  letters  to  her 
acquaintances  and  friends,  thus  parading  her  social 
importance. 

The  patriotic  societies  that  followed  the  period 
in  which  Mrs.  Rice  lived  were  formed  and  main 
tained  solely  for  the  purpose  of  publishing  the  so 
cial  aspirations  of  parvenus.  But  cattle  are  regis 
tered,  so  why  not  register  the  men  and  women  that 
are  descended  from  Revolutionary  peasants?  Many 
of  them  now  form  what  is  known  by  a  few  Virgin 
ians  as  the  Revolutionary  aristocracy — those  persons 
who  were  not  aristocrats  before  the  first  war  with 
Great  Britain.  Let  them  be  registered. 

"  Maw, — er — mother, — why  in  the  devil  do  you 
keep  on  havin'  cherry  bounce  an'  lemonade  'stead  of 
wine?" 

"  Now,  son,  you  know  I  don't  believe  in  no  drink 
able's — except  the  kind  ladies  drink.  You  know, 
Cap'n,  I  goes  around  to  social  functions  of  patri 
otic  s'cieties  of  afternoons,  an'  I  don't  see  nobody 
takin'  nothin'  stronger  than  tea  an'  lemonade  an' 
the  likes.  Now,  son,  you  stop  your  teasin'.  The 
doctor  never  took  a  drink  in  all  his  life,  Cap'n,  my 
son  never  did;  now  did  you,  son?" 

"Well,  I  should  say  so,  maw — er — mother!  You 
don't  think  so— of  course  not,  certainly  not!  But 
let  me  tell  you,  old  lady,  the  first  thing  I  learnt  at 
William  an'  Mary  was  to  carry  a  pint  of  corn  a 


THE     BETRAYAL  173 

day,  an'  I  learnt  how  to  double  that  dose  at  the 
University.  But  when  I  got  to  Princeton  I  had  to 
forget  the  corn  part  of  my  eddication  an'  learn 
how  to  take  up  an'  put  down  five  Manhattan  cock 
tails,  one  bottle  of  Krug,  six  Martinis,  an'  three 
glasses  of  Chartreuse  every  day,  then  put  on  a 
nightcap  made  of  brandy.  No,  indeed,  I  don't  take 
nothin' ! " 

"Why,  you  Reg'nal  La'nc'lot  Rice!  Ain't  you 
ashamed  of  yourself,  standin'  up  there  an'  havin' 
Cap'n  Temple  hear  sech  carryin'-ons !  An'  he's  a 
doctor,  too,  if  he  ain't  mended  no  bones  an'  pulled 
no  teeth !  You  knows  you  never  took  no  glass  in 
all  your  life  I  " 

"  Now,  now,  Mrs.  Rice,  boys  will  be  boys !  As 
a  young  man  I  never  took  anything,  nor  do  I  touch 
a  drop  now;  but  I  can  understand  how  all  young 
men  like  to  taste  a  little  innocent  wickedness  now 
and  then.  The  doctor  is  a  boy  after  my  own  heart, 
a  fine  young  fellow,  who  will  steady  down.  Some 
fine  day  he  will  take  his  father's  place  in  the  Senate." 

"  Aw,  cut  out  that  pink  punk,  won't  you  now ! " 

But  the  captain's  kind  words  had  relieved  the 
tension.  Evidently  this  Virginian  of  the  aristocracy 
thought  that  Dr.  Reginald  Launcelot  should  be  ex 
cused  for  appearing  drunk  at  his  mother's  im 
promptu  social  function. 

The  afternoon  din — tea — proceeded  merrily,  but 
was  soon  interrupted  by  Mr.  James  P.  Rice,  who 
had  canvassed  Fauquier  in  the  interest  of  his  can 
didacy  all  the  morning.  Several  persons  had  ad 
dressed  him  as  Senator  Rice,  pleasantly  anticipating 
his  election,  hence  the  self-nominated  candidate  was 
unusually  buoyant. 


174  THE    BETRAYAL 

He  greeted  his  guests  with  great  warmth.  Like 
all  Virginians  of  his  period,  from  the  humblest  to 
the  most  exalted  in  station,  he  shook  hands  heartily 
with  each.  One  insulted  the  Virginian  when  he 
did  not  take  his  or  her  hand  when  introduced. 

The  pleasure  that  Mr.  Rice  took  in  entertaining 
was  real.  In  this  he  was  like  all  Virginians  of 
his  time,  for  there  was  no  affectation  in  the  Vir 
ginian's  hospitality.  Nor  was  that  hospitality  within 
bounds. 

"  Pleased  to  see  you  all."  Then,  turning  to  Tem 
ple,  he  asked:  "Have  you  been  here  long?  Have 
I  kept  you  waitin'  ?  " 

"  I  have  been  very  pleasantly  entertained,  I  assure 
you,  Senator.  If  I  am  ever  so  fortunate  as  to  find 
some  girl  willing  to  marry  me,  I  hope  that  she  will 
take  into  my  home  all  the  grace  and  charm  of  the 
lady  who  presides  at  your  table,  and  will  know  how 
to  prepare  such  excellent  dishes  as  these." 

"How's  farmin',  Mr.  Stokes?"  inquired  Mr. 
Rice,  not  neglecting  his  other  guests  in  his  elation. 

"  Fine  as  silk.  But  I  don't  see  why  you  people 
daown  her-r-re  don't  have  better-r-r  roads.  I 
never-r-r  seen  sich  roads  nowher-r-res ! " 

u  If  you  don't  like  our  roads,  Mr.  Stokes,  you'd 
better  go  back  to  where  you  come  from,"  Miss  Eu 
genie  Victoria  said  good-naturedly,  although  she 
managed  to  convey  to  Mr.  Stokes  the  idea  that  she 
was  tired  of  hearing  his  complaints. 

"  I  'low  as  I  shell  git  to  go  back  hum  some  time 
or-r-r  ruther." 

This  pleasantry  was  overlooked  by  Mr.  Rice, 
who  now  turned  to  Simpson. 

"An*  how  are  you,  Perfessor?" 


THE    BETRAYAL  175 

"  Pretty  well,  pretty  well,  thank  you." 

Whereupon  the  professor  nervously  gulped  down 
a  glass  of  lemonade.  He  desired  the  friendship  of 
every  member  of  the  Rice  family;  for  although  his 
addresses  to  Miss  Phyllis  Daphne  had  been  long  and 
unsuccessful,  still  he  hoped  that  the  day  would  come 
when  he  would  call  socially  on  Mr.  Rice  —  alone. 

After  tea  everybody  went  on  the  verandah,  except 
Dr.  Reginald  Launcelot,  who  went  to  his  room, 
first  having  told  his  mother  derisively  that  her 
cherry  bounce  had  made  him  sleepy. 

Professor  Simpson  soon  pulled  from  his  pocket  a 
small  album,  then  turned  its  pages  slowly.  He  was 
preoccupied,  solving  some  intricate  problem  in 
mathematics,  no  doubt. 

"What's  you  got,  Perfessor?" 

"Why,  Mrs.  Rice;  you  startled  me!  This  is  an 
album  that  contains  a  few  portraits  of  scientific 
men.  Do  you  care  to  examine  its  contents?" 

"  Newton  —  Darwin  —  Herschel  —  Huxley  —  Simpson 
—  why,  Perfessor!  what  in  the  world  is  your  like 
ness  doin'  in  here?  " 

"  Why,  mummer,"  said  Miss  Phyllis  Daphne,  as 
she  covered  her  admirer's  confusion,  "  Perfessor 
Simpson's  writin'  a  book  about  the  fourth  de-men- 
sion,  an'  says  as  how  them  big  bugs  that's  got  their 
names  in  there  never  knowed  nothin'  about  no  fourth 


While  the  album  was  passed  about  Miss  Doro 
thea  Annabel  spoke  to  Captain  Temple  in  an  under 
tone. 

'The  Professor  says  that  he's  a  literary  immortal 
as  well  as  a  genius  in  mathematics.  I  never  could  see 
what  Phyllis  Daphne  found  in  him  to  admire.  Oh, 


176  THE    BETRAYAL 

I'm  so  tired  of  all  this,  Captain  Temple, — these  dull 
people,  with  their  trying  manners,  their  crude  ideas, 
and  their  awful  vulgarity !  It  seems  so  easy  for  a 
man  to  be  a  gentleman  and  for  a  woman  to  be  a 
lady." 

"  I  would  not  mind  if  I  were  you,  Dorothea — 
Dorothea  Annabel — Dolly — Dorothea.  How  beau 
tiful  is  your  beautiful  name!  My  harsh  voice  is  al 
most  musical  when  I  say  Dorothea  Annabel — Dor- 
o-the-a  Annabel." 

"H-u-s-h!" 

"  Why  don't  you  folks  daown  her-r-re  pull  that 
ther-r-re  vine  often  the  side  o'  the  house?"  asked 
Mr.  Roger  Williams  Stokes,  who  was  not  interested 
in  affairs  literary  and  scientific. 

"  If  company  don't  like  the  way  things  is  fixed, 
they  can  mighty  easy  find  the  big  road — it's  plain 
enough  for  anybody  to  see,  the  Lawd  knows !  " 

"  Didn't  mean  no  har-r-rm." 

Miss  Eugenie  Victoria's  voice  was  sharp  and 
clear  enough  to  subdue  her  ardent  admirer. 

"  Senator,  what  do  you  think  of  the  political  sit 
uation?" 

"  Dunno,  Cap'n;  dunno.  I  follow  Parson  Jones 
without  askin'  no  questions,  because  he's  a  Baptist 
preacher.  Young  Debtpayers  like  you  don't  know 
what  it  is  to  have  to  dig  taxes  outen  the  ground." 

Mr.  Rice  had  not  referred  to  his  career  as  a 
merchant  since  he  had  become  a  land  owner. 

"Why,  dad,"  Miss  Dorothea  Annabel  said, 
"  Captain  Temple  is  not  a  Debtpayer — he  has 
promised  General  Murphy  to  run  for  governor,  and 
he  is  likely  to  be  the  first  Readjuster  president  of 
the  United  States." 


THE    BETRAYAL  177 

"  Yes,  indeed,  James  P.,  Dorothea  Annabel's 
speakin'  the  truth." 

"You  don't  mean  it,  maw!  Well,  I  do  declare! 
I  certainly  am  glad,  though,  Cap'n,  I  certainly  am. 
I  voted  for  your  father  many  a  time,  an'  I  certainly 
is  goin'  to  have  a  great  deal  of  pleasure  in  votin' 
for  you." 

"  I  thank  you.  If  I  can  serve  the  people  with  as 
much  ability  as  my  father  served  them,  I  shall  feel 
justified  in  neglecting  my  law  practice  and  entering 
the  public  service  of  my  fellow-countrymen.  His 
popularity  has  always  been  a  source  of  deep  grati 
fication  to  me." 

"  Politics  is  a  better-r-r  payin'  business  than  law 
— leastwise  it  pays  better-r-r  in  Vermont,  wher-r-re 
I  comes  from.  But  law  comes  in  mighty  handy 
with  politerkers,  an'  that  ain't  no  lie." 

"I  am  mighty  glad  Mr.  Harrison's  with  us  too; 
mighty  glad,  I  can  tell  you,"  said  Mr.  Rice.  "  His 
speech  the  other  day  made  a  heap  of  farmers  see 
what  I've  been  tellin'  them  all  along — what's  the 
use  of  scufflin'  and  scufflin'  jest  to  see  the  fruit  of 
your  labour  sent  to  pay  off  an  old  debt  as  is  owed 
to  a  lot  of  English  as  wouldn't  help  us  in  the  war 
an'  a  lot  of  Yankees  as  fit  an'  then  robbed  us.  The 
United  States  gov'ment  destroyed  our  property — 
now,  I  says,  let  the  United  States  gov'ment  pay  our 
debts.  Mr.  Harrison's  wrong  when  he  says  as  how 
the  debt  oughter  to  be  paid  when  we're  able  to  pay 
it.  I  believe  in  this  here  thing  called  forc'ble  read 
justment.  I  am  mindin',  though,  as  what  he's  sayin' 
about  a  satisfactory  settlement  with  the  creditors  is 
gettin'  a  lot  of  them  as  stickles  that  folks  oughter 
pay  their  honest  debts.  I  pays  my  own  debts — in 


178  THE    BETRAYAL 

time — an'  that's  all  any  man  oughter  be  asked  to 
do." 

"  If  he  does  that,  he  does  better'n  most  folks  do 
• — leastwise  up  to  hum  no  man's  layin'  'wake  o' 
nights  worryin'  'bout  debts — leastwise  unless  it's 
the  man  that  ain't  able  to  git  debts  paid  to 
him." 

"  I  shall  probably  see  you  again,  Mr.  Stokes — 
at  nine  to-night,"  said  the  captain,  as  he  looked  sig 
nificantly  at  the  New  Englander. 

"  Al-r-r-right." 

The  conversation  was  not  particularly  interesting 
to  the  young  ladies;  the  ten  little  Rices  were  impa 
tient;  little  Stonewall  Jackson  had  just  tickled  little 
Violet  Rosemary's  foot,  and  Turner  Ashby  fre 
quently  had  requested  his  mother  to  make  Timothy 
Murphy  be-have. 

Seeing  that  the  time  for  his  departure  kid  come, 
Captain  Temple  took  his  leave  with  elaborate  grace. 
He  was  so  courteous  and  graceful,  so  long  in  taking 
his  leave,  that  all  felt  thrilled. 

Mrs.  Rice  urged  Temple  to  call  again. 

"  Now  dn-u-u,  Cap'n,  now  as  you  have  found 
your  way  out  to  our  estate,  come  around  real  offen; 
now  du-u-u." 

Mr.  Rice  added  a  few  words  to  the  invitation 
that  his  spouse  had  extended. 

"  I  certainly  was  mighty  pleased,  Cap'n,  when  I 
found  you'd  come  around  to  pay  us  a  s'ciety  visit. 
I  hope  you'll  come  just  as  offen  as  you  can.  Be 
shore  to — now  don't  forget." 

Miss  Dorothea  was  the  last  to  whom  he  said 
good-bye,  although  the  entire  Rice  tribe  and  the  vis 
itors  accompanied  him  as  far  as  the  steps  of  the 


THE    BETRAYAL  179 

verandah.     In  parting  he  neither  pressed  her  hand 
nor  showed  by  his  eyes  that  he  loved  her. 

At  two  o'clock  the  next  morning,  as  Dorothea 
Annabel  went  over  the  events  of  the  day  for  the 
fiftieth  time,  she  decided  that  she  admired  the  cap 
tain's  self-restraint,  as  shown  by  his  leave-taking, 
more  than  any  of  his  other  qualities.  She  had  never 
known  any  other  person  that  she  had  considered  so 
fine — he  was  even  more  than  fine,  for  was  he  not 
a  gentleman  of  extraordinary  nobility?  She  had 
never  known  any  other  person  that  she  had  consid 
ered  a  gentleman,  or  even  a  man — except  her  father, 
who  was  a  man  if  not  a  gentleman.  She  wondered 
if  the  creatures  with  whom  she  had  associated,  who 
had  dressed  in  a  way  somewhat  to  resemble  Captain 
Temple,  belonged  to  any  sex. 

"  I've  allers  told  you,  maw,  as  our  gyurls  would 
do  well  if  they'd  jest  be  perticular  about  their  com 
pany.  Now,  there's  no  nicer  gent'man  nowheres 
than  Cap'n  Temple." 

"An'  he  did  seem  downright  pleased  with  our 
Dorothea  Annabel  too.  I  do  wish  them  other 
gyurls  had  Dorothea  Annabel's  style  about  them." 

"  I  don't  think  much  of  their  beaux.  They  ain't 
much  account  when  you  sets  'em  up  alongside  a  man 
like  Cap'n  Temple." 

Mr.  Rice  felt  that  he  was  on  familiar  terms  with 
the  gentleman  that  he  so  greatly  admired.  The 
acquaintance  had  soon  ripened  into  a  close  friend 
ship. 

"  I  think  Stokes  is  real  pleasant  now,  James  P. 
His  manners  ain't  so  finished  as  Cap'n  Temple's,  of 
course.  .  .  .  You  oughter  be  perticular,  James 


180  THE    BETRAYAL 

P.,  about  how  you  talk  bcfo'  him.  You  warn't  over 
an'  above  perlite." 

"  I  don't  think  much  of  no  Vermont  Yankee,  I 
don't,  even  if  he  has  bought  a  nice  little  place  outen 
his  carpetbagger  money.  As  to  Simpson,  I  down 
right  draw  the  line  there.  Not  an  acre  of  land  to 
his  name — an'  he  warn't  nothin'  but  an  ord'nary 
dark  in  a  store  till  he  come  fifteen  year.  Not  an 
acre  of  land  to  his  name — an'  him  three  months 
outen  each  year  without  no  work.  Means  he'd 
want  to  hang  around  here  all  summer.  I've  told 
them  gyurls  straight  up  an'  down  as  how  they  must 
marry  out  when  they  marry.  I  can't  have  no  mar- 
ryin'  in." 

"  You  du-ii-u  make  sech  coarse  speeches,  James 
P.  There  ain't  no  man  as  wants  to  set  on  you  as 
I  knows  of.  You're  enough  to  keep  your  gytirls 
from  marryin'  at  all." 

Mrs.  Rice  got  into  bed. 

As  Captain  Temple  went  on  his  way  his  thoughts 
were  with  him. 

"  A  pretty  girl,  Dorothea, — Dorothea  Annabel, 
as  she  seems  to  be  called, — and  a  very  nice  girl. 
You  will  not  marry,  Dolly.,  Too  good  for  the 
Simpsons  and  the  Stokeses,  and  not  good  enough 
for  me.  You  will  never  be  able  to  swim  the  gulf 
that  separates  the  Rices  and  the  Simpsons  from  the 
Temples  and  the  Braxtons.  You  should  go  abroad 
—to  the  north  of  us.  Many  of  your  class  do,  then 
prate  of  F.  F.  V.'s — and  then  persuade  northern 
gemmen  as  how  they  are  Virginny  ladies. 

"Love,  love,  love!  A  fool  is  the  man  that  per 
mits  himself  to  love  a  woman  before  he  is  married 


THE    BETRAYAL  181 

to  her,  and  then  he  should  not  love  her  so  much  as 
to  be  unwilling  to  marry  again  when  she  dies.  I 
love  you,  Lelia  Braxton, — I  think, — I  love  you  be 
cause  you  are  beautiful,  proud,  gentle,  faithful  to 
your  ideals — and  for  a  thousand  other  reasons. 
You  shall  be  Mrs.  James  Spotswood  Temple.  And 
Dorothea  Annabel?  .  .  .  Well,  little  Dolly,  at 
least  I  shall  teach  you  love.  Your  life  shall  not 
be  utterly  barren,  dear.  .  .  .  And  I  shall  love 
you,  Dolly, — a  great  deal — yes,  a  very  great  deal. 
But  I  shall  love  Lelia  at  the  same  time — and  maybe 
I  shall  love  Lelia  a  great  deal  more." 

Several  miles  beyond  the  Rice  farm,  along  the 
road  between  Warrenton  and  Fauquier  White  Sul 
phur  Springs,  was  located  the  shop  of  one  Andy 
Stover,  a  blacksmith,  who  was  influential  politically 
in  his  neighbourhood.  The  shop  was  a  favourite 
rendezvous  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  the  Fau 
quier  country  folk,  and  those  good  people  used  to 
gather  there  to  discuss  their  cabbages  and  kings. 
Occasionally  a  gentleman  would  draw  his  horse  up 
near  the  door  and  while  away  half  an  hour  with 
the  sturdy  smith,  but  would  never  enter  the  shop. 

After  taking  his  leave  of  the  Rice  family  Captain 
Temple  rode  out  to  the  smith's  shop.  Stover,  in  his 
shirt  sleeves  and  apron,  having  finished  his  day's 
work,  sat  with  his  chair  propped  against  the  outer 
wall  of  the  small  brick  building,  smoking  his 
pipe. 

"  Good  evening,  Andy." 

"  Evenin',  Cap'n.  'Fraid  you're  too  late  to  git 
yer  work  done  ter-day,  suh." 

"  I  have  no  work  for  you  this  evening,  Andy.     I 


182  THE     BETRAYAL 

merely  stopped  to  exchange  a  few  words  with  my 
old  friend." 

"  Git  right  down  an'  tek  er  cheer." 

"No,  I  thank  you;  I  can  stay  only  a  few  minutes. 
You  country  folk  always  keep  better  posted  on  pol 
itics  than  those  that  live  in  cities.  How  are  the 
Readjusters  out  here — thickening?" 

"Dunno,  Cap'n;  it's  hard  ter  tell." 

Mr.  Stover,  not  having  heard  of  the  change  in 
Captain  Temple's  political  faith,  decided  to  be  non 
committal. 

"  I  hope  there  is  no  danger  that  the  payment  of 
the  funds  appropriated  for  free  schools  will  be  dis 
continued." 

'  Thar  ain't  no  tellin'  what  you  Funders'll  do  wid 
them  funds.  My  nevvy,  Gawge  Simpson, — Per- 
fessor  Gawge  Washin'ton  Laf'ette  Simpson,  out  ter 
Laurel  Hill,  yer  knows, — say  ef  you  Debtpayers 
ain't  stopped  thar'll  be  no  schoolin'  fer  po'  folks. 
He  says  as  how  all  the  money  goes  ter  keep  up 
the  gov'ment  an'  ter  them  thar  bon'hol'ers;  an'  he 
say  as  how  them  thar  cw^-pons  that  ain't  wuth  er 
cent  is  all  the  schools  git." 

"  Andy,  our  children  must  not  be  brought  up  in 
ignorance.  They  have  little  enough,  God  knows. 
The  state  owes  a  high  duty  to  every  one  of  her 
people — a  duty  higher  than  that  which  she  owes  to 
Yankees  and  English  bondholders." 

Captain  Temple  paused,  then  continued  in  an  out 
burst  of  confidence. 

"/  am  a  Readjuster!" 

"  Praise  God,  Cap'n  !  Praise  God !  I  ain't  never 
hearn  no  sech  good  news  befo' — I  cert'n'y  never 
hev.  Do  yer  mean  it,  suh?  " 


THE    BETRAYAL  183 

"Yes,  I  mean  to  say  that  I  am  a  Readjuster — 
with  all  my  heart  and  soul  a  Readjuster.  We  must 
act  together,  Andy,  you  and  I,  and  see  that  a  large 
Readjuster  vote  is  polled  next  fall.  If  the  Debt- 
payers  succeed  in  this  election,  the  free  schools  will 
be  abolished,  taxes  will  be  increased  until  even  your 
business  will  be  taken  from  you,  and  I  shall  not  be 
surprised  if  the  churches  are  closed,  the  salaries  of 
the  preachers  sent  to  the  state  treasury,  and  our 
children  look  straight  through  the  gates  of  hell. 
Every  man  that  travels  this  road  that  stops  to  talk 
with  you  must  be  urged  to  vote  for  our  party — 
every  man  that  wishes  to  live  to  praise  God  and 
to  enjoy  the  benefits  of  His  hands." 

"  I  shore  am  doin'  all  I  ken.  An'  lemme  tell  this 
yer  so  nobody's  goin'  ter  hear:  Gawge  Simpson — 
Perfessor  Gawge  Washin'ton  Laf'ette  Simpson,  am 
what  I  means — air  workin'  hard  makin'  speeches 
night  an'  day  ter  black  an'  white.  Gawge — what 
am  ter  say  Perfessor  Gawge  Washin'ton  Laf'ette 
Simpson,  that's  ter  Laurel  Hill — he's  got  me  beat 
like  er  anvil  'bout  eddication,  but  I  ken  holler,  an' 
I  is  er-hollerin',  I  jes'  ken  tell  yer.  Every  man 
'round  yere,  black  an'  white,  air  up  agin  them  Debt- 
payers.  Gawge — what  am  the  perfessor — says  as 
how  free  schools  hev  already  been  shet  down  over 
ter  Laurel  Hill,  cayse  school  taxes  wus  paid  in  cue- 
pons  'stedder  money,  an'  he  'lows,  he  do,  as  how 
the  farmers  air  bein'  taxed  so1  as  they  ain't  got 
nothin'  'cept  thar  debts  left." 

'  The  people  should  be  informed — thoroughly 
informed — as  to  the  true  state  of  affairs  without 
delay." 

"They's  bein'  tole  right  'nough.     We's  gittin'  up 


1 84  THE    BETRAYAL 

er  bar-be-cue  now.  Thar's  no  way  ter  git  out  votes 
like  er  bar-be-cue.  When  evvybody's  het  up  wid 
liquor  their  feelin's  ken  be  worked  on  by  them  as 
has  gifts  o'  language.  It'd  be  heap  o'  he'p  ef  you'd 
jine  us  ter  that  thar  bar-be-cue." 

"How  could  I  help,  Andy?" 

"  By  makin'  er  speech — one  of  them  thar  workin'- 
up  speeches  that'll  make  every  man  wonder  why  he's 
sech  er  fool  'bout  neglec'in  his  intrus'.  Evvy  cent 
counts,  Cap'n,  in  gittin'  up  er  bar-be-cue.  Them 
things  cost,  too,  cayse  thar's  bread  an'  meat  an' 
liquor — an'  allers  them  comes  high.  Parson  Jones, 
he  done  sent  us  er  'scription,  but  said  as  how  none 
o'  his'n  wus  ter  go  fer  rum.  Thar  warn't  'nough  fer 
rum  in  that  thar  subscription  nohow." 

"  Well,  this  is  for  whiskey,  remember,  and 
should  be  enough  to  supply  a  quart  to  every  man." 
'Thankee,  Cap'n;  thankee  kindly,  suh.  I'll  see 
as  how  evvy  cent  goes  fer  liquor.  Parson  Jones'll 
be  yere  nex'  cote-day,  an'  he'll  bring  out  evvy  Bap 
tist  in  the  county.  Howsomever,  bein'  a  Meth'dis', 
I  don't  'xactly  like  ter  hear  er  preacher  talkin'  pol 
itics." 

"  He  is  a  good  talker,  Andy.  You  should  bring 
the  Methodists  out  to  hear  him.  He  will  not  argue 
baptism  this  time.  Andy,  there  is  a  duty  that  you 
owe  to  your  God  and  to  your  neighbour.  That 
duty  is  this:  do  all  in  your  power  to  hasten  the  com 
ing  of  God's  kingdom  on  earth  by  electing  our  party 
next  fall." 

Mr.  Stover's  sense  of  his  importance  in  the  com 
munity,  greatly  increased  because  of  his  intimate 
relations  with  the  leaders  of  his  party,  now  made 


THE    BETRAYAL  185 

him  turn  toward  Captain  Temple  with  an  outburst 
of  confidence. 

"  Gen'l  Murphy  am  er  hard  man,  Cap'n;  er  hard 
man,  suh.  I  fit  under  him,  I  did.  He  am  er  hard 
man,  suh.  His  hard-headedness  kilt  us  most  as 
much  as  it  kilt  the  Yankees.  Yer  ought  ter  be  the 
man  fer  us  to  git  out  fer  gov'nor.  Thar  ain't  no 
man  as  warn't  proud  of  ole  Gen'l  Temple.  He 
war  er  great  man,  Cap'n;  er  great  man,  suh.  You're 
the  man,  suh." 

'"  I  teks  'specious  pledjer  in  pernouncerin'  ter  you, 
Miss  Berkeley,  dat  Mistah  James  Spotswood  Tem 
ple  will  fill  de  cheer  ob  honour  ter-night.  Fs  Vited 
de  mos'  sumptuous  ob  my  'quaintances  ter  de  fes- 
tibal  ter  celebrate  de  duplicity  ob  de  party — de 
party  dat's  er-gwine  ter  gib  ebry  man  rights  dat's 
his'n, — de  party  ob  ^-qual-et-te." 

"  Nigger,  why  don'  you  quit  dem  highferlutin' 
airs  'roun'  me.  I  knows  you,  Mister  Berkeley, — I 
knows  you.  Jes'  shet  dat  black  mouf  ob  yourn  an' 
kep  it  shet,  an'  talk  words  dat  you  an'  me  knows 
when  you  hangs  'roun'  dis  hyar  house.  I's  tired  ob 
yo'  foolishness;  an'  ef  you  don'  quit,  I's  gwine  try 
de  shevel  as  er  weepon." 

"  Malindy,  hit's  jes'  sech  niggers  as  you  as  keeps 
de  race  down.  Come  from  yo'  po'-white-trash 
raisin'.  An'  I  could  er-married  Mistah  Dainger- 
field's  Sary,  dat  was  ole  Miss  Daingerfield's  own 
maid,  an'  as  fine  er-lookin'  yaller  gal  as  I  eber 
seen,  'stedder  takin'  a  pot-black  nigger  lek  you. 
Don'  know  what  mek  me  sech  er  fool." 

Mrs.  Berkeley  took  the  shovel. 


1 86  THE    BETRAYAL 

"Wish  you  had — wish  ter  Gawd  you  had,  you 
nasty  low-down,  low-flung,  turkey-buzzard,  you !  " 

The  reverend  doctor  rapidly  withdrew,  his  irate 
spouse  following  him  to  the  door,  which  received 
the  full  force  of  the  shovel  that  she  aimed  at  the 
vanishing  form  of  her  lord  and  master. 

In  the  early  morning  the  day  after  the  Berkeley 
festival,  where  words  and  social  equality  were  food 
and  wine,  all  Fauquier  county  knew  that  the  late 
Governor  Alexander  Spotswood  Temple's  son  had 
addressed  a  meeting  of  negroes,  that  he  had  been 
introduced  to  a  negro  audience  by  a  negro,  that  he 
had  treated  negroes  as  if  they  were  socially  his 
equals,  that  he  had  called  them  brothers,  and  that 
he  had  accepted  an  invitation  to  dine  with  Shad  and 
his  wife.  The  ominous — or  joyous — news  seemed 
to  have  been  scattered  broadcast  by  the  soft  breezes 
that  usher  in  May  days  in  Virginia,  so  rapidly  had 
it  travelled. 

Not  all  the  negroes  were  elated.  Many  of  them 
were  shocked  beyond  measure — among  them  Wil 
liam,  Judge  Braxton's  butler,  and  Jake,  Mr.  Harri 
son's  man,  who  met  in  front  of  the  great  gates  of 
Morven  soon  after  sunrise. 

"  Don'  you  'pen'  on  nuttin'  'tall  he  say,  Br'er 
Inglewood.  I  don'  set  no  sto'  by  dese  yere  turn- 
coaches  nohow.  Mistah  Temple  done  tu'n  ergin 
his  own?  What  fo'?  Fo'  suppen',  shorely;  an' 
'tain'  fo'  nuttin'  done  fo'  you  dn'  me.  Ef  he  gwine 
et  wid  Shad,  he  ain'  gwine  et  wid  Marse  Ingram 
• — not  ef  I's  gwine  wait  de  table." 

"  Dat's  so,  Br'er  Morven;  now  you  is  jes'  talkin'. 
I  ain'  fo'git  nohow  as  how  Mistah  Jeemes  done 


THE    BETRAYAL  187 

cheat  Jinny  outen  de  money  he  done  git  fo'  her  HT 
piece  ob  Ian'.  Ef  white  folks  steal,  dey  mos'  gen'al 
calls  it  'kleppin';  ef  nigger  steal,  dey  done  call  it 
roguin';  but  Mistah  Temple  he  done  mek  er  new 
name — Mistah  Temple  he  done  call  it  his  law'er's 
fee." 

The  indignation  of  the  gentry  when  they  heard 
of  Temple's  conduct  could  hardly  be  termed  anger, 
for  the  news  was  far  too  serious  for  mere  wrath. 
Now,  as  never  before,  they  had  a  realising  sense  of 
the  great  danger  in  which  all  Virginia's  institutions 
were  placed. 

Colonel  Daingerfield  heard  the  news  at  five 
o'clock.  Immediately  he  called  for  his  horse. 

"Judge  Braxton,  I  offer  no  excuse  for  this  early 
call." 

"  Yes,  Daingerfield,  William  brought  us  the  news 
an  hour  ago.  I  dressed  at  once  and  came  down  to 
the  library." 

"  Judge,  for  three  hundred  years  Virginians  have 
been  a  people  apart  from  all  other  peoples  of  the 
earth.  Men  have  said,  I  am  an  Athenian,  I  am  a 
Roman,  I  am  an  Englishman;  but  when  a  Virgin 
ian  said,  I  am  a  Virginian,  those  that  heard  him 
understood  that  his  was  the  glory  of  Greece,  his  the 
grandeur  of  Rome,  his  the  splendour  of  England — 
and  more,  sir;  that  his  was  the  honour  of  Virginia. 
In  honour  our  country  during  all  her  life  has 
been  supreme  among  the  nations  of  the  world. 
*  Virginia  ' — '  honour.'  The  terms  are  interchange 
able.  I  do  not  speak  in  disparagement  of  any  na 
tion  when  I  say  that  no  people  of  recorded  time 
were  so  honourable  as  the  people  of  Virginia.  Why, 


i88  THE    BETRAYAL 

sir,  to  this  day  the  words  '  I  am  a  Virginian  *  is  the 
bond  of  every  man  that  gives  them  utterance.  This 
country,  in  spite  of  her  unfortunate  entanglements 
with  foreign  nations,  has  always  had  a  higher  credit 
than  any  other  nation  of  the  earth  during  the  entire 
period  of  her  existence.  No  other  country  could  bor 
row  among  foreign  peoples  sums  so  large  as  could 
Virginia.  No  man  asked  for  more  than  her  prom 
ise  to  pay.  Her  honour  was  her  security." 

The  old  statesman  trembled — not  with  anger,  but 
as  a  strong  man  that  has  been  told  that  his  son  has 
been  accused  of  some  foul  deed  and  he  fears  that 
there  may  be  truth  in  the  charge.  A  philosopher 
has  said  that  man's  ruling  passion  is  his  love  for 
his  mate.  That  philosopher  was  not  a  Virginian, 
unless  Virginia  was  his  mate;  for  the  ruling  passion 
of  the  Virginian  worthy  of  his  country  has  always 
been  Virginia;  nor  did  he  love  his  mistress  less  be 
cause  he  loved  Virginia  more.  The  colonel  loved 
no  human  being  as  he  loved  Virginia. 

"  Daingerfield,"  said  Judge  Braxton,  his  voice 
shaking  with  emotion,  "  I  hope  that  God  in  His 
goodness  will  take  my  life  sooner  than  He  will  per 
mit  me  to  live  to  see  Virginia's  honour  taken  from 
her."  He  paused  for  a  while  that  he  might  rees 
tablish  self-control.  "  People  must  be  governed  by 
those  that  are  educated  in  the  science  of  statecraft. 
Under  our  government  Virginians  for  more  than 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  were  a  highly  cultured 
and  moral  people,  as  happy  as  they  were  virtuous. 
Those  engaged  to  be  married  never  broke  their 
vows.  The  Virginian  home  was  inviolable.  Di 
vorce  was  unknown.  No  white  woman  was  accused 
of  being  unchaste.  Crime  was  confined  to  petty  lar 
ceny  among  negroes.  The  jails  of  some  of  our 


THE    BETRAYAL  189 

counties  were  without  a  single  prisoner  for  sixty 
consecutive  years.  Poverty  was  unknown.  The  man 
that  accumulated  great  wealth  was  dishonourable. 
I  believe  that  Virginia's  system  of  government,  an 
absolute  monarchy  with  all  the  strength  of  a  re 
public,  a  monarchy  in  which  the  aristocracy  as  a 
unit  was  king,  was  superior  to  any  government  of 
our  time  or  of  any  other  period.  If  virtue  and  fit 
ness  to  govern  do  not  reside  in  the  aristocracy,  in 
the  educated,  in  those  that  for  centuries  have  been 
accustomed  to  self-restraint,  in  those  that  know  that 
every  moral  transgression  is  bound  to  be  visited  by 
adequate  punishment,  that  all  the  virtues  carry  with 
them  their  own  reward:  I  say,  Daingerfield,  you 
are  right — if  government  can  not  be  conducted  suc 
cessfully  by  such  persons,  we  may  not  expect  that 
successfully  it  can  be  conducted  by  the  ignorant  or 
the  vicious.  The  ignorant  are  the  vicious  when  the 
hand  of  authority  no  longer  protects  them  against 
themselves." 

The  venerable  General  Dabney  and  the  aged  Mr. 
Carter  had  entered  the  library  while  Judge  Brax- 
ton  was  speaking,  but  had  motioned  him  to  con 
tinue. 

"  Indeed  is  Virginia's  sovereignty  in  jeopardy. 
To  overthrow  our  system  of  government  at  this 
time,  while  the  whole  people  are  in  a  pitiable  plight 
— the  result  of  our  long  war,  in  which  this  country 
was  made  the  battlefield  of  thirty-six  nations;  now 
that  Reconstruction  has  left  our  lands  devastated 
and  our  personal  property  dissipated — I  say  that  to 
change  our  whole  social  system  at  this  time  not  only 
would  bankrupt  Virginia  morally  and  financially, 
but  would  absolutely  destroy  her.  She  would  cease 
to  exist  as  a  nation." 


190  THE    BETRAYAL 

Judge  Braxton  paused.  Captain  Lancaster  had 
entered  the  library. 

"  Our  victors,  intoxicated  with  success,  are  now 
tearing  up  the  treaty  that  they  fought  to  preserve. 
Out  of  the  nations  that  entered  the  federal  compact 
they  intend  to  create  a  republic,  out  of  that  republic 
an  empire,  and  even  you  and  I  may  live  to  see  that 
empire  rise  and  fall.  Virginia  will  never  be  ab 
sorbed  by  any  foreign  government  so  long  as  she  is 
faithful  to  herself  and  resists  encroachments  upon 
her  sovereign  rights;  but  she  can  not  long  survive  a 
government  of  the  people  by  the  people  for  the 
people.  Such  a  government  would  soon  deliver  Vir 
ginia,  through  ignorance  or  intent,  into  the  hands 
of  our  enemies.  The  flag  of  Virginia  would  cease 
to  float  over  the  greatest  people  that  the  world  has 
ever  known." 

Colonel  Daingerfield  now  spoke,  not  svith  his 
usual  fire,  but  sadly.  Levity  would  have  been  un 
seemly  in  that  gathering  of  sad  old  men. 

"Liberty?  The  people  have  liberty  under  the 
rule  of  the  aristocracy;  but  when  ruled  by  men  of 
their  own  selection  licence  takes  their  liberty  from 
them — licence  to  break  down  all  the  elements  in 
civilisation  that  distinguish  a  cultured  from  a  bar 
barous  people.  O  Liberty,  how  many  crimes  are 
committed  in  thy  name!  Liberty?  Has  not  Lib 
erty  always  been  synonymous  with  Licence  in  the 
vernacular  of  the  people?" 

Depression  and  Captain  Lancaster  did  not  dwell 
long  together. 

"Liberty?  I'll  tell  you  the  meaning  of  Liberty. 
Here  is  Liberty  as  she  is  known  to  the  people: 
Licence,  Lust,  and  Lice." 


THE    BETRAYAL  191 

"Sir,  leave  my  presence!"  Mr.  Carter  com 
manded. 

The  gentlemen  had  risen  as  one  man,  but  resumed 
their  seats  as  soon  as  Mr.  Carter  had  issued  his 
command.  No  one  spoke  for  at  least  a  minute,  but 
all  sternly  looked  at  the  captain,  who  pretended  to 
be  greatly  abashed.  He  kept  his  seat,  but  averted 
his  face. 

"  Upon  one  occasion  a  lowly  beast  opened  his 
mouth  and  spake  the  truth ! "  said  Colonel  Dainger- 
field,  still  glaring  at  the  captain. 

'"  This  is  the  most  unkindest  cut  of  all,"  Gen 
eral  Dabney  said,  "  that  sons  of  such  men  as  John 
Randolph  Harrison  and  Alexander  Spotswood 
Temple  should  try  to  steal  from  Virginia  her  dear 
est  treasure.  Now  in  her  mantle  muffling  up  her 
face — her  proud  face  of  honour — she  cries  aloud, 
' Et  tu,  Harrison!  et  tu,  Temple!  then  fall,  Vir 
ginia  ! ' — unless  the  Lord  God  of  Hosts  shall  inter 
vene  to  save  His  people  from  destruction." 

These  were  the  words  of  a  man  who  would  soon 
be  called  before  his  Maker.  Like  all  Virginian  gen 
tlemen  of  his  period,  his  language  was  largely  col 
oured  by  the  Bible,  the  works  of  Shakespeare,  and 
the  writings  of  Macaulay  and  Carlyle — whose  words 
they  used  as  their  own.  But  woe  befall  the  man 
who  would  misquote  or  otherwise  misuse  those  au 
thors. 

"Sir,"  Colonel  Daingerfield  said,  "you  have 
drawn  on  the  great  Bard  of  Avon  to  characterise 
those  misguided  young  men.  I  venture  to  say,  sir, 
that  the  language  of  our  fathers  will  be  heard  in 
Virginia  no  longer  when  her  gentlemen  make  place 
for  Murphy  and  his  thieves." 


192  THE     BETRAYAL 

The  colonel  paused  again  to  look  fixedly  at  the 
captain,  then  continued: 

"  Where  is  the  Virginian  yeoman  and  the  Vir 
ginian  peasant  of  yesterday?  In  all  Fauquier 
county  there  are  only  two  families  of  yeomen  and 
two  families  of  peasants  that  are  true  to  them 
selves  and  to  Virginian  traditions — the  yeomen 
Whites  and  the  yeomen  Christians;  and  the  peasant 
Joe  Miller  is  the  only  Miller  left,  and  the  peasant 
Mary  Scott  is  the  only  Scott  left.  There  was  a 
time  when  all  Virginian  yeomen  were  like  the 
Whites  and  the  Christians,  and  when  all  Virginian 
peasants  were  like  the  Millers  and  the  Scotts.  The 
Virginian  peasant  race  must  not  die.  So  I  thought 
when  Joe  asked  me  to  permit  him  to  marry  Mary. 
The  Virginian  yeoman  race  must  not  die.  You 
must  see  to  that,  Judge.  We  must  have  more 
Whites  and  more  Millers." 

"  The  time  will  come  when  Virginia  will  be 
known  for  her  niggers,  mules,  and  yaller  dogs  in 
stead  of  her  great  men  and  beautiful  women,"  said 
Captain  Lancaster,  who  had  recovered  his  usual  in 
dependence  of  thought  and  speech.  "  I  am  in  fa 
vour  of  fighting  Murphy  with  a  gun,"  he  continued. 
"  Harrison  says  our  campaign  is  one  of  words. 
Words  will  not  harm  Timothy  Murphy.  I  say  let 
me  pick  a  quarrel  with  him.  He  is  a  brave  man, 
and  will  fight  if  I  slap  his  face.  I  shall  kill  him 
with  the  first  shot." 

"No,  that  would  not  do,  Lancaster;  not  for  a 
minute,"  Judge  Braxton  sa*d,  for  he  feared  that 
the  impetuous  captain  possibly  might  fight  Murphy 
without  advising  further  with  his  friends.  "  Duel 
ling  of  that  kind  should  never  have  existed  in  any 


THE     BETRAYAL  193 

civilised  country,  and  such  duels  have  never  been 
fought  in  Virginia.  Besides,  able  men  would  take 
Murphy's  place  if  he  should  die.  There  are  Har 
rison,  Temple,  and  Jones." 

"  So  you  mention  Temple's  name  with  the  names 
Murphy  and  Jones ! "  exclaimed  General  Dabney. 
"  I  recall  how  Governor  Temple  said  to  me  a  few 
months  before  he  died,  '  Dabney,  there  are  black 
sheep  in  my  flock,  but  I  hope  that  I  shall  never  see 
the  day  that  two  of  my  sons  will  disgrace  their 
country's  name.  My  old  friend,  I  fear  that  they 
are  rascals.'  I  thank  God  that  Governor  Temple 
died  before  one  of  those  sons  had  the  opportunity 
to  slay  him  with  last  night's  infamy." 

General  Dabney  did  not  live  to  hear  how  Gover 
nor  Temple's  other  black  sheep  later  gave  a  dinner 
at  his  home  in  Williamsburg,  to  a  mixed  company  of 
white,  black,  and  tan  politicians,  later  being  elected 
by  the  negroes  of  his  district  as  a  member  of  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States;  nor  did  he  live  to  see 
the  time  when  James  Spotswood  Temple  was  ejected 
from  the  hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  United  States  for  abusing  the  privileges  of  the 
floor,  which  he  had  claimed  as  a  former  member  of 
Congress — expelled  by  his  own  party  for  vicious 
lobbying. 

The  party  of  gentlemen  was  interrupted  by  Andy 
Stover,  somewhat  sobered,  who  rushed  in  unan 
nounced,  greatly  excited,  and  addressed  Mr.  Car 
ter: 

"  Missus  say  come — come  quick!    Andy's  dyinM" 

"Leave  my  presence,  sir!  For  sixty  years  I  have 
attended  the  Stovers,  but  the  last  time  there  was 
a  distemper  in  your  family  you  summoned  Dr. 


194  THE    BETRAYAL 

Smythe,  and  you  summoned  him  because  he  would 
charge  you,  and  therefore  you  thought  that  his  ad 
ministrations  would  be  more  effective  than  mine. 
Leave  my  presence,  sir !  Go  to  Dr.  Smythe !  " 

"Bin  thar!  He  say:  'Go  git  that  ole  fogy 
Carter.  Let  him  kill  yo'  chile.  I  ain't  got  no  use 
for  no  man  as  don't  pay  his  doctor's  bills.  I  ain't 
goin'  ter  'ten'  yo'  folks  no  mo'.' ' 

For  several  minutes  the  venerable  physician  was 
speechless.  v 

14  I  will  go  with  you,  Stover, — immediately.  To 
what  a  pass  has  Virginia  come!  A  physician,  God's 
elect,  refuses  to  save  a  life  because  he  does  not  re 
ceive  his  wage!  " 

Whereupon  Mr.  Carter  accompanied  Mr.  Stover 
to  his  home,  carrying  with  him  calomel,  quinine,  and 
a  silver  spoon, — he  always  carried  calomel,  quinine, 
and  a  silver  spoon  in  his  pockets,' — and  lifrle  Andy 
soon  passed  out  of  the  shadow  of  death,  a  shadow 
cast  by  croup. 

44  Tel-e-grum,  suh !  " 

The  message  was  delivered  to  John  Harrison 
early  in  the  morning,  before  he  left  his  room  in 
the  Exchange  Hotel,  in  Fredericksburg,  for  break 
fast. 

Petersburg  Va    Wed   A   M 
John  Harrison    Exchange  Hotel,  Fredericksburg   Va 

In  your  speech  this  afternoon  do  not  refer  to  political 
meeting  held  in  Warrenton  last  night 

MURPHY 

The  young  man  hurried  to  the  foyer,  where  he 
found  groups  of  men  anxiously  discussing  the  events 
of  the  night  before,  accounts  of  which  had  been 


THE    BETRAYAL  195 

telegraphed  throughout  the  state.  As  he  read  the 
message  he  thought  that  there  was  truth  in  the 
common  report:  Murphy  never  slept. 

Harrison  was  to  speak  in  Fredericksburg  in  the 
afternoon,  then  go  to  Ashland  to  attend  a  conference 
of  Readjuster  leaders.  The  day  after  the  conference 
he  was  to  make  the  last  of  a  series  of  addresses  in 
Richmond,  then  return  to  Warrenton,  where  he 
would  stay  for  a  few  days  before  starting  on  a  cam 
paign  in  the  east. 

Many  persons  called  to  see  him  before  the  hour 
set  for  his  address,  but  all  the  while  he  thought  of 
Lelia  Braxton,  how  she  would  be  distressed  beyond 
measure;  for  she  knew,  he  was  sure,  that  he  would 
be  obliged  to  share  Temple's  disgrace,  that  Temple's 
shame  would  be  his  shame,  and  the  shame  of  every 
Murphyite  in  the  state. 

He  thought  of  her  as  he  had  seen  her  last,  kneel 
ing  in  the  magnolia  grove  in  the  Morven  garden 
that  evening  just  after  sunset.  He  had  remained 
on  his  knees  for  several  minutes  after  her  prayer  was 
said,  although  he  had  not  prayed;  then  he  had  stood 
up,  and  after  he  had  walked  a  few  steps  toward 
the  house  he  had  stopped,  turned,  and  looked  at  her 
tenderly  for  several  minutes,  as  she  knelt  there,  and 
then  he  had  gone  silently  away.  He  had  not  heard 
from  her  since;  nor  had  he  called  to  see  her,  but  the 
next  day  he  had  gone  on  a  campaigning  tour  of  the 
cities  between  Fredericksburg  and  Danville,  and 
since  then  he  had  delivered  three  speeches  daily. 
He  would  go  to  her  that  afternoon,  after  making 
a  brief  speech, — not  to  ask  her  if  God  had  answered 
her  prayer,  but  to  show  her  that  Temple  and  his 
kind  did  not  represent  General  Murphy  and  other 


196  THE    BETRAYAL 

honourable  leaders  of  the  Readjuster  party.  But 
had  her  prayer  been  answered?  If  so,  his  way  had 
not  been  God's  way. 

While  jealousy  is  often  a  manifestation  of  ego 
tism,  it  also  frequently  has  its  root  in  self-abase 
ment,  but  seldom  results  from  a  lack  of  confidence 
in  its  object.  Not  for  a  moment  did  John  Har 
rison  doubt  Lelia  Braxton's  constancy — to  her  love, 
or  to  her  friends;  but  he  feared  that  she  would 
cease  to  love  him,  and  in  time  would  love  some  man 
more  nearly  in  sympathy  with  her  political  views. 

And  why  should  he  hold  the  love  of  this  won 
derful  being?  Had  she  ever  loved  the  real  John 
Harrison? — or  had  the  seed  of  tares  which  she  had 
sown  in  her  heart  blossomed  into  flowers?  There 
was  Dick  Taliaferro,  a  man  that  he  greatly  ad 
mired,  a  great  sculptor;  personally  attractive,  tall, 
vigorous  physically  and  mentally;  a  man  liked  by 
men,  strong,  yet  tender  as  a  woman.  Surely  Lelia 
Braxton  would  cease  to  love  John  Harrison  when 
she  really  knew  Dick  Taliaferro. 

Then,  he  had  heard  how  the  best  of  women  often 
marry  the  worst  of  men.  His  heart  was  sick  as  he 
thought  of  Temple,  who  was  known  as  a  popular 
man  among  women,  especially  among  young  girls. 
Through  some  trickery  the  fellow  might  win  Lelia 
Braxton's  love;  she  might  plant  in  her  heart  other 
seed  that  would  bloom  into  flowers. 

Like  all  men,  John  Harrison  felt  that  he  was  the 
only  man,  although  unworthy, — how  unworthy  he 
alone  knew, — that  he  was  the  only  man  that  really 
understood  the  character  of  the  woman  that  he 
loved,  the  only  man  that  should  marry  her.  His 
life  would  be  dedicated  to  her.  His  chief  pleasure 


THE    BETRAYAL  197 

would  be  to  work  for  her  happiness.  Although 
Taliaferro  would  make  an  ideal  husband  for  some 
noble  girl,  he  could  never  understand  Lelia  Braxton. 
But  Temple — he  would  not  continue  his  thoughts, 
he  would  not  permit  himself  to  think — the  fate  that 
— the  fate  that  would  be  hers  should  she  marry  that 
man. 

He  was  unable  to  get  Temple  out  of  his  thoughts. 
His  hideous  image  was  ever  before  him — until  he 
rang  the  Morven  door-bell. 

"Lelia,  dear  love,  I  am  here." 
"  I  thought  that  you  would  come." 
"  I  was  afraid  that  you  would  not  see  me." 
"  I  shall  never  refuse  to  see  you,  John,  so  long  as 
I  shall  live — I  hope." 

'*  That  meeting  last  night — that  meeting — I  had 
nothing  to  do  with  it.  Lelia,  General  Murphy 
never  knew  there  was  to  be  such  a  meeting.  .  .  . 
I  am  unjust.  Captain  Temple  could  never  have 
spoken  the  words  that  have  been  attributed  to  him 
by  negroes  who  wish  social  equality,  who  have  mis 
understood,  who  have  deliberately  misrepresented  his 
attitude  and  words.  I  have  known  Captain  Temple 
ever  since  I  was  a  boy.  He  neither  could  have 
treated  negroes  as  his  social  equals  nor  led  them  to 
believe  that  the  Readjuster  party  intends  to  repudi 
ate  one  cent  of  Virginia's  debt.  .  .  .  Temple  and 
I  are  not  friends;  but  no  act  of  his  that  I  can  recall 
ever  justified  any  feeling  of  hostility  that  I  may 
have  for  him." 

"  I  do  not  like  him — I  do  not  trust  him — I — be 
lieve — I — even — despise — him.  But  I  have  never 
heard  him  accused  of  any  wrong  until  now.  He  has 


198  THE    BETRAYAL 

not  been  misrepresented,  though;  I  feel  sure  of 
that." 

They  were  silent  for  several  minutes. 

"John,  that  meeting  last  night  was  planned  by 
General  Murphy  and  Captain  Temple.  Oh,  John 
dear,  can  you  not  see? — can  you  not  see?  I  would 
share  disgrace  with  you;  I  would  gladly  bear  all 
your  disgrace — in  my  heart — and  oh  the  joy  I 
would  have  in  the  burden ! — but,  John  dear,  I  can 
not,  I,  a  Virginian,  I  can  not! — my  life  and  dis 
honour  must  not  be  linked  together.  And  Virginia 
expects  every  Virginian  woman  to  keep  Virginia's 
honour  bright — Virginia's  honour." 

"  Do  you  realise  what  you  are  saying?  You  ac 
cuse  me  of  dishonour.  You,  the  woman  that  I  love, 
charge  me  with  an  offence  that  is  beyond  pardon. 
The  charge  would  have  been  intolerable  h?-d  a  man 
made  it — and  I  would  have  killed  him,  or  he  would 
have  killed  me.  And  the  woman  that  I  love  brings 
that  charge  against  me !  " 

"Oh,  John!  Oh,  John,  John,  John!  Oh,  my 
love!" 

Neither  spoke  for  a  while.  Then  John  stood  up, 
bowed  gravely,  and  left  the  house. 

After  a  while  Lelia  Braxton  went  to  her  room. 
That  night  she  lived  several  years — for  there  are 
days  that  are  years  in  the  lives  of  men.  Life  is  not 
spanned  by  three  score  years  and  ten.  The  span  of 
life  is  sorrow — and  joy. 

A  lurid  light  in  the  north,  a  dull  glow  in  the  east, 
flames  that  were  visible  ir?  the  south,  was  what  John 
Harrison  saw  when  he  left  Lelia  Braxton  and  went 
into  the  night. 


CHAPTER  FIVE 

A  the  dominating  characteristic  of  the  negro 
throughout  recorded  time,  if  symptomatic, 
has  been  vanity,  never  has  there  been  a  pe 
riod  when  the  mental  or  the  moral  level  of  the  race 
varied,  nor  when  any  member  whose  blood  was  un 
alloyed  greatly  excelled  the  race  as  a  whole.  One 
negro  being  as  good  as  another,  and  none  able  to 
rise  above  his  fellows;  his  handmaid  laziness, — his 
sole  ambition  to  excel  in  personal  adornment, — he 
lives  from  hour  to  hour  in  a  condition  of  absolute 
contentment  and  rest. 

No  other  race  is  without  a  literature  of  its  own, 
if  written  only  on  trees  and  stones.  For  many  years 
the  negro  melody  phantom  danced  before  Lafcadio 
Hearn's  eyes,  then  surprise  and  chagrin — negro 
music  and  folk-lore  were  old  French  and  Spanish 
songs  and  stories.  As  a  negro  tribe  follows  the 
chase,  hunting  in  droves,  and  never — not  a  lone  man 
• — attacking  dangerous  beasts  unless  numerically  su 
perior  to  its  prey  by  a  hundredfold;  as  no  mighty 
hunter  has  been  a  negro;  as  the  negro  is  without  a 
great  warrior;  as  there  never  has  been  a  negro  hero 
of  peace;  as  no  negro  man  has  ever  given  his  life 
for  another;  as  there  is  no  negro  racial  pride:  the 
aged  of  the  tribes  have  had  no  achievements  of 
which  to  sing.  But  they  have  sung  the  songs  of 
their  masters — not  their  conquerors,  for  the  negro 
has  never  been  conquered.  They  still  sing  the  songs 
that  tell  of  their  masters'  mighty  deeds.  No  word 

199 


200  THE    BETRAYAL 

of  African  origin  does  the  American  negro  know. 
He  is  without  a  literature;  he  is  without  a  language; 
he  is  without  a  memory. 

No  race  properly  may  plead  lack  of  opportunity 
in  extenuation  of  ignorance  and  vice.  The  negro 
and  the  monkey  probably  have  lived  as  long  as  man; 
but  neither  the  monkey  nor  the  negro  has  changed 
in  any  characteristic. 

When  the  negro  was  carried  into  countries  in 
habited  by  other  races  he  immediately  became  a 
slave,  continuing  his  life  of  vanity,  imitation,  and 
contentment.  He  was  neither  mentally  nor  morally 
improved  by  his  new  surroundings;  he  took  his  habi 
tat  with  him;  his  masters  controlled  him,  and  they 
forced  him  to  obey  a  few  moral  and  physical  laws. 
But  no  sooner  was  the  hand  of  authority  withdrawn 
than  the  negro  returned  to  his  estate  primeval, 
never  better,  but  worse  for  a  while  mentally,  physi 
cally,  and  morally  than  he  was  during  his  tribal  life. 

In  slavery  days  the  American  negro  imitated  his 
master  in  manners  and  in  dress — and  in  nothing 
else.  Now  the  American  negro  imitates  the  follies 
of  his  former  masters,  but  never  their  achievements 
in  mental  and  moral  philosophies  and  arts  and 
sciences.  What  reward  did  he  expect  when  he  imi 
tated  the  follies  of  his  former  masters?  The  grati 
fication  of  his  vanity.  Nothing  more. 

The  war  between  the  states  fatally  affected  the 
American  negro.  The  wage  of  sin  is  death.  The 
negro  in  America  and  in  Africa  is  dying. 

When  told  by  the  invaders  of  Virginia  that  all 
men  were  born  free  and  equal,  that  the  black  man 
was  as  good  as  the  white  man,  that  the  Proclama 
tion  of  Emancipation  had  liberated  their  minds  as 


THE    BETRAYAL  201 

well  as  their  bodies,  the  freedman  declared  that  he 
was  mentally  and  morally  equal  to  his  former  mas 
ter,  and  proceeded  to  gratify  his  ruling  passion, — 
inordinate  vanity, — and  proceeded  to  practise  all  the 
loathsome  vices  of  barbarism.  Although  his  im 
agination  had  not  pictured  the  time  when  liberty 
of  licence  would  permit  him  to  govern  his  former 
masters,  he  became  a  governor,  the  black  man  gov 
erning  the  white  man.  But  no  legislative  nor  execu 
tive  act  of  his  was  influenced  by  a  desire  to  improve 
the  condition  of  man  and  to  raise  the  standard  of 
civilisation.  His  career  as  governor  was  free  from 
burden,  free  from  restraint,  and  even  free  from 
primal  obligations  to  society. 

The  people  of  Virginia,  among  them  Temple  and 
Murphy  and  their  followers,  did  not  believe  that 
negro  character  had  been  changed  by  freedom. 
They  were  right.  Political  and  social  equality  in  its 
minor  aspects  would  take  the  place  of  the  barn  dance, 
where  young  bucks  were  dressed  in  their  masters' 
worn-out  evening  clothes  and  young  wenches  in  the 
discarded  finery  of  their  mistresses.  The  negro 
clamouring  for  equality  meant  merely  that  he  de 
manded  equality  in  social  intercourse,  the  licence  to 
gratify  his  vanity,  not  that  he  had  conceived  a  con 
dition  of  natural  equality.  His  dominant  passion 
was  intensified,  nothing  more. 

As  the  negro  was  known  to  every  white  man  in 
Virginia,  none  save  negroes  believed  that  the  Proc 
lamation  of  Emancipation  would  work  a  miracle — 
that  the  negro  would  be  freed  from  slavery.  All 
believed  that  an  unwholesome  upheaval  in  the  rela 
tions  of  the  negro  and  his  master  would  result,  by 
which  both  would  be  damaged,  but  held  that  slavery 


202  THE     BETRAYAL 

necessarily  would  exist  in  some  form,  for  the  negro 
race  could  occupy  no  other  relation  to  any  of  the 
peoples  of  the  earth.  Again  the  people  of  Virginia 
were  right.  If  slavery  be  involuntary  servitude,  the 
negro  always  has  been  and  always  will  be  a  slave 
when  brought  within  the  sphere  of  influence  of  any 
other  race.  Still  a  slave  in  Virginia,  the  negro  will 
be  nothing  else  so  long  as  he  is  there — or  elsewhere. 

No  better  form  of  slavery  ever  existed  than  the 
Virginian  negro  slavery.  It  was  a  sad  day  for  the 
negro  when  Lincoln  by  a  stroke  of  his  pen  made  a 
white  man  of  him. 

While  the  Readjusters  had  intimated  to  negroes 
that  they  would  enjoy  social  equality,  they  never  ex 
pected  them  to  act  like  untamed  savages,  set  fire  to 
residences,  barns,  hay-stacks,  pillage  corn-cribs,  steal 
fowls  and  domestic  animals,  and  assault  white  wo 
men;  but  the  negro  had  resumed  the  enjoyment  of  his 
primal  instincts.  Conditions  soon,  existed  under 
which  he  was  not  tolerated  by  any  other  class  than 
the  gentry,  which  never  took  part  in  the  lynching  of 
negroes,  and  which  in  time  broke  up  the  Ku  Klux 
Klan.  Aristocrats  never  countenanced  lawlessness 
nor  brutality  in  the  government  of  the  negro,  yet  they 
had  ruled  him  for  nearly  three  hundred  years  with  as 
little  trouble  as  they  had  controlled  their  domestic 
animals. 

Now  Joe  Miller  had  told  Hugh  White  that  he 
and  Mary  Scott  were  "  goin'  to  get  married";  and 
so  thought  the  confident  Joe;  but  he  took  Hugh  into 
his  confidence  before  he  spoke  to  the  gentle  Mary 
about  the  matter,  who  heard  the  news  before  the 
proper  courier  was  announced.  Consequently  she 


THE    BETRAYAL  203 

"  shore  had  been  a-layin'  an'  a-layin' "  for  the  young 
stage-driver  and  mail-carrier  all  day,  and  to-night 
she  had  kept  him  waiting  in  the  kitchen  fully  ten 
minutes  before  she  appeared  with  eyes  flashing  and 
cheeks  ablaze. 

"Oh!— you  here?" 

"  Be'n  here  more'n  an  hour." 

"  Well,  you  needn't  set  here  no  longer.  I'm  sure 
I  never  asked  no  man  to  hang  'round  me,  takin'  me 
offen  Miss  Daingerfield's  sewin'." 

11  What  ails  you?  I  ain't  never  seen  you  so 
riled." 

"  You  ain't,  ain't  you !  Well,  you  go  ask  Hugh 
White  an'  Lucy  Christian  an'  every  Tom-Dick-an'- 
Harry  you  meets  on  the  highway — that's  what  you 
do." 

"Ain't  Miss  Daingerfield  spoke  to  you?" 

"No,  she  ain't;  an'  what's  mo',  there  ain't  no 
body  spoke  to  me;  an'  what's  mo',  ef  anybody  had 
spoke  to  me,  anybody  ain't  got  no  business  thinkin' 
as  how  I'd  jump  at  him,  an'  goin'  'roun'  sayin'  as 
how  me  an'  anybody  would  be  a-marryin'  them 
selves." 

"  I  'lowed  as  you  an'  me  wus  a  settin'-up  as  soon 
as  I  spoke  to  the  cunnel — 'lowin'  as  how  Miss 
Daingerfield  tole  you  right  away." 

"  All  Miss  Daingerfield  say  was  how  you  wus  a 
thrifty  man,  an'  as  how  she  didn't  know  what  she'd 
do  for  sewin'.  I  allus  knowed  you  wus  thrifty,  an' 
I  tole  Miss  Daingerfield  as  how  I  didn't  know  as 
how  I  had  a  call  to  sew  for  nobody  'cep'in'  her." 

"  Miss  Daingerfield  'lowed  as  we'd  be  marryin' 
ourselves." 

"She  didn't!     She  didn't!     She  didn't  mean  no 


204  THE    BETRAYAL 

sech !  Leastwise  I  didn't  know  as  how  she  meant 
that.  I  hate  you!  I  just  hate  you,  hate  you,  hate 
you!" 

"  I  loves  you.  I  wants  you  to  be  my  wife.  You 
is  the  most  likely  lookin'  gyurl  I  knows.  I  loves 
you.  Won't  you  marry  me — Mary?" 

Then  Mary  cried,  for  all  young  peasant  girls 
cried  when  they  were  asked  to  marry;  and  then  she 
answered  her  suitor  after  the  manner  of  peasant 
girls. 

"I  ain't  goin'  to  marry  no  man!  Oh,  you  is  just 
awful!  No  !  No !  No  !  I  won't  marry  no  man  !  " 

And  a  little  later  Mrs.  Daingerfield  went  into 
the  kitchen  on  a  housewife  errand.  In  some  way 
the  mistress  always  knew  when  the  "  psychological 
moment"  (as  New  England  "authoresses"  say) 
was  at  hand.  She  spoke  to  the  young  people  after 
the  manner  of  the  Virginian  mistress. 

"Well,  Joe,  we  will  miss  Mary;  but  we  are  glad 
that  she  is  to  marry  a  man  like  you — the  Scotts  and 
the  Millers  are  a  part  of  the  Daingerfield  house 
hold.  Be  good  to  her,  Joe, — as  I  know  you  will  be, 
— and  you  and  Mary  establish  a  family  that  will 
be  God-fearing  and  faithful  to  those  that  God  has 
placed  above  you  in  station." 

"  I'll  allus  sew  for  you,  Miss  Daingerfield,  'deed 
I  will!" 

"An'  I'll  do  anything  in  the  world  fer  you  an' 
the  cunnel,  ma'am!  I  ain't  itchin'  fer  s'cy-et-ty,  I 
ain't,  like  all  the  little-house  folks,  'lowin'  as  how 
they  is  great-house  'quality." 

As  Temple  rode  home  in  the  early  morning,  after 
he  had  addressed  the  negroes  at  the  meeting  held 


THE     BETRAYAL  205 

in  Shadrach's  church,  he  saw  evidences  of  the  pas 
sion  that  he  had  aroused.  Several  negroes  stopped 
him  as  he  rode  home,  addressed  him  with  gross  fa 
miliarity,  and  throughout  the  day  he  received  infor 
mation  that  negroes  were  committing  depredations, 
beginning  in  a  small  way  and  gradually  increasing 
in  gravity.  A  report  reached  him  at  five  in  the  af 
ternoon  that  several  negroes  had  killed  and  carried 
away  one  of  Mr.  Carter's  blooded  cows. 

As  Temple  was  about  to  join  the  throng  that  had 
gone  to  the  fire  in  Mr.  Carter's  barn  he  was  greeted 
by  the  Reverend  Shad. 

"  Sholy,  Brudder  Temple,  mah  people  am  full  ob 
mo'n  de  grace  ob  Gawd  ter  depredation  dese  heri- 
ditaments  in  dis  outlan'ish  an'  inconsequential  se 
quence." 

"  This  night's  work,  Dr.  Berkeley,  following  the 
crimes  that  began  before  day,  not  only  has  rendered 
the  meeting  in  your  church  valueless,  but  actually 
has  done  a  great  deal  of  harm  to  the  cause  that  is 
so  dear  to  your  heart  and  to  mine." 

"  Dyah  cert'ny  ain'  no  'scuse  fo'  de  way  mah 
flock's  behavin'  dyahsel's,  dyah  sholy  ain'.  I  'spects 
Brudder  Williams'  people  am  mos'ly  cuttin'  up  dese 
outlan'ish  imperfections." 

"  Please  notify  your  people  at  once,  Dr.  Berkeley, 
that  this  business  has  got  to  stop.  I  shall  call  a 
meeting  of  the  leaders  of  our  party  for  to-morrow 
morning  at  ten  o'clock,  and  I  shall  expect  you  to  be 
present.  Moreover,  I  shall  expect  you  to  assure 
those  that  will  be  present  that  no  further  outbreak 
of  your  people  shall  occur." 

Later,  while  standing  in  the  shadow  of  an  old 


206  THE    BETRAYAL 

maple,  Temple  saw  Harrison.  Whereupon  he  In 
dulged  in  a  few  choice  thoughts. 

"  Ha,  ha,  my  fine  fellow  !  So  the  news  of  the  day 
brought  you  to  the  side  of  the  lovely  Leila !  No 
doubt  you  told  her  of  Harrison's  superiority  to 
Temple;  nor  is  deep  discernment  necessary  to  enable 
one  to  see  that  the  picture  was  not  flattering  to  this 
your  friend.  Some  day — when  Lelia  Braxton  is  the 
first  lady  of  the  land — I  shall  think  of  the  look  of 
horror,  mingled  with  contempt  that  is  now  on  your 
noble  brow.  Each  emotion  that  sweeps  your  face 
betrays  a  thought  of  Temple.  How  greatly  su 
perior  you  are  to  him !  .  .  .  A  weakling!  Thank 
God,  I  am  a  man!  Like  a  man  I  shall  fight  and 
win." 

With  these  reflections  and  others,  Temple  took 
his  way  toward  the  deep  red  glow  that  lit  the  hori 
zon  in  the  direction  of  Fairfax. 

While  John  Harrison  sat  in  his  office  reading  the 
letters  that  had  accumulated  during  his  absence,  Bob 
delivered  a  letter  from  Temple. 

WARRENTON,  VIRGINIA. 
My  dear  Mr.  Harrison: 

I  heard  of  your  return  late  yesterday  afternoon,  and  im 
mediately  despatched  messengers  in  the  hope  of  finding  you. 
In  this  I  did  not  succeed,  as  you  know. 

I  find  that  distorted  reports  of  the  meeting  that  was  held 
in  Berkeley's  church  have  been  generally  circulated — for  the 
purpose  of  prejudicing  the  interests  of  our  party,  no  doubt. 
Here  is  the  truth  of  the  matter: 

While  riding  toward  Berkeley's  church  late  Wednesday 
night  I  saw  that  it  was  brilliantly  lighted ;  so  I  determined 
to  investigate,  as  it  is  unusual  for  that  church — or  any  other 


THE     BETRAYAL  207 

— to  be  lighted  at  a  late  hour  of  a  secular  day.  I  found  a 
political  meeting  in  progress;  and  hearing  important  ques 
tions  discussed  unintelligibly,  I  spoke  a  few  words  of  advice 
and  instruction,  outlining  the  principles  of  our  party — in 
very  much  the  way  that  gentlemen  have  always  addressed 
audiences  in  which  there  were  negroes.  I  am  sure  no  gen 
tleman  of  our  acquaintance  would  have  objected  in  the 
least  to  anything  that  I  said,  unless  this:  I  advised  the 
negroes  to  support  our  party;  which  advice,  no  doubt,  the 
Debtpayers  would  have  found  offensive. 

The  reports  spread  by  the  opposition  misled  the  coloured 
people,  inflamed  their  passions,  and  resulted  in  the  scenes  of 
violence  that  occurred  yesterday  and  last  night.  All  Read- 
justers  agree,  I  believe,  that  our  success  or  failure  depends 
in  a  large  measure  upon  the  negro  vote.  I  think  that  the 
situation  should  be  handled  tactfully.  We  should  deliver 
the  coloured  vote ;  at  the  same  time  the  negro  should  be  held 
in  check,  for  there  must  be  no  repetition  of  the  lawlessness 
of  the  last  twenty-four  hours.  To  this  end  I  have  invited 
several  Readjusters  of  Fauquier  to  meet  in  my  office  this 
morning  at  ten  o'clock  to  confer;  and  I  ask  you,  for  the 
good  of  the  party,  to  attend  the  meeting. 

I  have  been  greatly  wronged  by  the  few  persons  that  have 
attributed  unworthy  motives  and  conduct  to  me.  I  wish  to 
establish  the  identity  of  the  person  that  is  responsible  for 
spreading  those  defamatory  statements,  that  I  may  punish 
him  as  severely  as  he  deserves. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

JAMES  SPOTSWOOD  TEMPLE, 
Formerly  Captain  C.  S.  A. 

Friday  morning. 

While  the  door  to  Temple's  office  was  open,  Har 
rison  was  unable  to  see  the  occupants  of  the  room 
until  he  stood  in  the  doorway,  a  few  minutes  after 
ten.  Then  he  saw  in  the  office  several  negroes, 
among  them  the  preachers  Berkeley  and  Williams, 


208  THE    BETRAYAL 

and  Professor  Simpson,  Captain  Temple,  the  nat 
uralised  carpetbagger  Stokes,  the  senatorial  candi 
date  Rice,  and  the  blacksmith  Stover.  Harrison 
got  no  farther  than  the  doorway. 

"Captain  Temple,"  he  said,  "your  letter  xftd 
not  intimate  that  I  was  expected  to  confer  with 
negroes.  I  decline  to  take  part  in  this  conference." 

Leaving  abruptly,  Harrison  made  his  way  to  the 
office  of  the  clerk  of  court,  where  he  had  to  examine 
files  for  a  client,  while  Temple  turned  to  his  con 
ferees. 

"  In  my  opinion,  gentlemen,  Harrison  is  too  good 
for  human  nature's  daily  food.  I  am  ashamed  of 
his  conduct.  We  all  are  made  of  the  same  clay; 
no  man  is  much  better  than  his  neighbours.  Well, 
well,  he  is  young  and  inexperienced !  He  has  a 
great  deal  to  learn,  and  we  should  be  charitable, 
should  we  not?  I  am  sure  we  all  are  superior  to 
this  kind  of  thing,  and  can  afford  to  tolerate  him 
for  the  good  of  the  party." 

"  Wher-r-re  I  comes  from  one  man's  'bout  as 
good  as  another.  This  her-r-re  settin'  a  man  above 
his  neighbour  I  don't  take  no  stock  in.  I  ain't  never-r 
seen  no  man  as  I  thought  wus  better-r'n  Roger  Wil 
liams  Stokes.  My  folks  comes  from  righteous  peo 
ple,  an'  oughter  be  a  good  sight  better-r'n  them  as 
comes  from  gamblers." 

"An'  er  white  man  ain'  nuttin'  'cept'  a  cullud 
gemman  dat's  whitewashed,  say  de  Good  Word," 
said  the  Reverend  Doctor  Berkeley. 

When  Harrison  reached  the  clerk's  office  appar 
ently  no  one  was  there.  This  did  not  surprise  him, 
for  the  clerk  frequently  left  the  door  of  his  office 


THE    BETRAYAL  209 

open  and  went  to  a  near-by  store  to  play  backgam 
mon,  as  no  one  thought  of  molesting  the  public 
records.  The  young  man  had  been  at  work  about 
fifteen  minutes  when  a  slight  sound  came  from  a 
corner  of  the  room.  He  walked  over  to  a  tall  desk, 
and  there  behind  it,  as  though  he  had  tried  to  con 
ceal  himself,  was  General  Timothy  Murphy. 

"  Ah-h-h — Mr.  Harrison,  this  is  indeed  a  great 
pleasure !  I  thought  you  were  at  the  Ashland  con 
ference." 

"  I  intended  to  be  there,  but  a  personal  matter 
here  required  my  attention.  I  thought  that  I  could 
be  spared,  so  here  I  am.  But  I  shall  leave  early  in 
the  morning,  in  time  to  meet  my  engagement  to 
speak  in  Staunton  at  noon  to-morrow.  I  thought 
that  you  were  in  Petersburg." 

"  I  left  Petersburg  almost  immediately  after  tele 
graphing  to  you,  that  I  might  keep  an  engagement 
in  Washington.  I  came  on  to  Warrenton  to  search 
the  records  in  this  office  for  a  document  that  I  was 
unable  to  find  in  Washington,  which,  I  was  told, 
could  be  found  here." 

"  Please  make  Inglewood  your  home  while  you 
are  in  the  city,  General.  I  shall  take  great  pleasure 
in  entertaining  you." 

'  Thank  you,  Mr.  Harrison.  I  will  take  supper 
with  you  this  evening,  and  spend  the  night,  leaving 
early  in  the  morning  for  home.  I  am  very  glad 
indeed  that  you  came  to  Warrenton,  for  recent 
events  here  made  a  conference  between  us  desirable. 
I  trust  that  I  am  not  abusing  my  privilege  as  your 
guest  in  asking  you  to  invite  Captain  Temple  to  tea. 
I  think  we  three  should  discuss  the  political  situa 
tion  among  ourselves,  and  work  out  a  plan  to  pre- 


210  THE    BETRAYAL 

vent  outrages  by  the  negroes — yet  treating  them 
kindly  that  we  may  not  alienate  them." 

"  Certainly,  General,  I  shall  ask  Captain  Temple 
to  take  supper  at  Inglewood  with  us  this  evening; 
and  I  shall  be  glad  of  the  opportunity  to  show  my 
friends  and  the  people  generally  that  I  do  not  be 
lieve  the  reports  affecting  him  that  have  been  cir 
culated.  But  I  think  that  I  should  say  to  you  that 
my  relations  with  Captain  Temple,  while  not  un 
friendly,  are  not  altogether  pleasant." 

"  Well,  Mr.  Harrison,  upon  occasion  I  am 
obliged  to  associate  with  men  that  are  very  distaste 
ful  to  me;  but  I  am  obliged  to  subordinate  my 
private  taste  to  the  public  good — to  the  good  of  the 
party,  as  I  see  that  you  have  done.  In  great  moral 
movements  a  man  must  associate  with  uncongenial 
persons,  even  with  thieves — and,  I  may  say,  even 
with  negroes.  Necessarily  one  must  do  that.  If 
you  will  keep  constantly  in  mind  the  great  work 
upon  which  you  have  entered  the  ordeal  will  be 
bearable.  Of  course  you  will  find,  as  I  have  found, 
that  your  great  difficulty  will  be  to  control  yourself 
when  you  come  in  contact  with  the  persons  that  you 
will  meet  in  this  campaign. 

"  I  remember  that  my  dear  friend  your  father 
and  I  once  spoke  about  a  similar  matter,  which  came 
up  during  the  first  year  of  the  war.  '  Judge,'  I  said, 
'  I  am  unable  to  control  myself  when  I  see  some 
hulking  soldier  throw  down  his  musket  and  run,  or 
when  I  see  some  arrogant  young  officer  sacrifice  the 
lives  of  his  men  to  his  ignorance,  or  when  an  of 
ficer  uses  questionable  methods  to  gain  promotion  1 ' 
4  Timothy,'  he  replied,  '  I  am  many  years  older  than 
you.  My  long  service  in  public  life  has  taught  me 


THE    BETRAYAL  211 

that  all  men  are  noble;  yet  all  men  do  that  which  is 
not  right,  for  wrongdoing  is  the  result  of  ignorance, 
not  deliberate  viciousness.  Those  in  authority  must 
bear  with  the  frailties  of  those  that  they  have  in 
charge,  until  gradually,  by  patient  instruction,  dark 
ness  makes  place  for  light.  Remember,  too,  that 
conditions  change  rapidly,  and  that  evils  pass  away 
with  the  conditions  out  of  which  they  grow.'  My 
young  friend,  your  dear  father  was  right. 

'  The  man  that  is  morally  and  mentally  superior 
to  his  brothers  should  show  that  superiority  through 
self-restraint  and  charity.  He  should  not  be  afraid 
to  mix  with  men  of  every  type.  Why  should  he? 
What  is  there  to  fear?  Is  his  own  character  or  his 
own  culture  in  jeopardy?  For  example,  these  ne 
groes  are  mere  children  of  the  woods;  brought  here 
against  their  will  by  our  fathers;  misguided  by  the 
enemies  of  our  state,  and  now  are  left  largely  to 
their  own  resources  by  those  that  should  direct  them, 
the  white  people  of  all  classes — for  only  our  white 
people  know  how  the  negro  should  be  governed. 
The  Readjuster  party  does  not  intend  to  establish 
social  equality  for  blacks,  nor  is  any  white  man  in 
this  state  willing  to  treat  the  negro  as  his  social 
equal;  but  common  humanity  demands  that  you  and 
Temple  and  every  leader  among  white  men  go 
among  our  poor  ignorant  black  men,  then  grad 
ually  lead  rather  than  drive  them  back  to  the  re 
lations  that  existed  between  them  and  their  masters 
before  the  war.  The  first  step  in  this  direction  is 
to  get  them  to  vote  for  our  party.  I  am  unable  to 
see  that  any  white  man  lowers  himself  by  going 
among  these  children  of  the  wilderness, — in  the 
name  of  common  humanity, — thus  obeying  the  com- 


212  THE     BETRAYAL 

mand   of  the   Master   that  we   spread  His   truth 
among  His  lowly  creatures." 

"  Our  people  have  always  guided  'the  negroes, 
General;  and  they  have  been  governed  as  perfectly 
as  is  possible  in  any  human  institution.  In  all  time 
no  other  barbarous  people  has  had  so  many  advan 
tages;  but,  sir,  our  experience  with  negroes  has 
shown  that  they  must  be  governed,  not  led.  If  the 
course  that  you  suggest — that  the  leaders  of  our 
party  go  among  the  blacks  and  induce  them  to 
vote  for  us,  by  addressing  their  political  gatherings, 
by  arguing  with  them,  or  by  attempting  to  persuade 
them  to  vote  for  our  party  in  any  other  manner, — if 
that  is  done  social  equality  in  a  way  is  effected.  In 
merely  requesting  them  to  vote  our  ticket  we  es 
tablish  social  equality  to  some  degree.  As  the 
negro  has  no  natural  right  to  suffrage,  I  think 
that  he  should  be  denied  a  voice  in  our  govern 
ment." 

"  I  agree  that  we  should  eliminate  the  negro  from 
the  political  equation;  but  not  until  our  party  is 
placed  in  power.  Then  we  shall  pass  laws  that  will 
provide  an  educational  test  before  the  right  of  suf 
frage  is  conferred,  a  test  that  the  blacks  will  be  un 
able  to  pass  successfully;  but  until  then,  and  in  order 
to  reach  a  large  success,  a  success  that  is  so  impor 
tant  to  our  country,  we  must  treat  with  the  negro, 
and  do  all  that  we  honourably  may  to  gain  his  sup 
port." 

"  If  our  cause  is  just,  why  should  we  need  the  ne 
gro  vote?  If  negroes  form  a  party  of  their  own 
they  will  be  unable  to  elect  their  ticket." 

'  There,    Mr.    Harrison,   you   are   wrong.      The 
negroes   can    poll    one   hundred   and   ten   thousand 


THE    BETRAYAL  213 

votes,  while  the  one  hundred  and  seventy  thousand 
votes  of  the  white  people  are  distributed  nearly 
equally  between  the  two  parties.  The  negroes  with 
their  majority  of  twenty-five  thousand  would  elect 
negroes  to  every  office  in  this  state,  with  conse 
quences  too  awful  to  contemplate.  That  danger  is 
a  menace  too  appalling  for  words  to  describe.  That 
the  danger  is  real  I  shall  show  you." 

Thus  talking,  General  Murphy  and  Mr.  Harri 
son  walked  through  the  streets  of  Warrenton,  at 
tracting  the  attention  of  many  persons,  including 
negroes. 

The  contrast  between  the  two  men  was  marked: 
General  Murphy,  almost  a  dwarf,  his  grey  beard 
sweeping  to  his  waist,  his  cruel  round  eyes  furtively 
glancing  in  every  direction,  his  high-heel  shoes  add 
ing  but  little  to  his  stature;  John  Harrison,  tall,  of 
knightly  bearing,  his  dark  blue  eyes  showing  con 
centration  of  thought,  athletic  in  build,  his  noble 
ancestry  discernible  in  all  his  features,  unaware  of 
the  gossip  of  the  curious  persons  they  met,  ab 
sorbed  in  the  matters  of  public  interest  that  he  was 
discussing  with  the  leader  of  his  party. 

General  Murphy  had  taken  the  first  north-bound 
train  out  of  Petersburg  after  he  had  received  the 
telegram  that  notified  him  of  the  negro  meeting  that 
was  held  in  Shadrach's  church,  and  had  arrived  in 
Warrenton  shortly  after  nightfall. 

Mingling  with  the  negroes  that  were  engaged  in 
groggery  debauches,  he  had  gathered  full  informa 
tion  with  respect  to  the  events  of  the  day  and  the 
night  before.  He  had  gone  to  the  first  fire,  where 
he  had  seen  both  Harrison  and  Temple;  then  he  had 
gone  to  see  the  burning  of  the  barns  and  hay-stacks 


214  THE    BETRAYAL 

that  had  been  fired,  and  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morn 
ing  he  had  fallen  asleep  under  a  tree. 

He  had  rightly  guessed  that  Temple  would  call 
upon  prominent  Readjusters  to  meet  in  his  office  the 
following  morning  to  take  measures  to  suppress  the 
outrages  of  the  negroes,  and  later  verified  his  guess 
by  passing  Temple's  office,  where  he  had  seen  a  card 
tacked  on  the  door,  on  which  was  written  a  notice 
of  the  meeting  that  was  to  be  held  at  ten  o'clock. 
He  had  decided  not  to  attend  the  conference.  Later 
he  would  be  discovered  in  the  clerk's  office.  For  vari 
ous  reasons,  political  and  otherwise,  but  mainly  that 
the  good  people  of  Warrenton  might  see  them  walk 
ing  together,  he  had  suggested  to  Harrison  that 
they  should  walk  through  the  town  rather  than  go 
to  the  young  man's  home  or  office.  Saying  that  he 
had  to  visit,  out  in  the  country,  an  old  soldier,  for 
merly  in  his  command,  the  general  had  declined  Mr. 
Harrison's  invitation  to  dine  with  him  at  Inglewood 
at  two  in  the  afternoon.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Murphy 
had  determined  to  spend  the  afternoon  in  meeting 
separately  and  secretly  Rice,  Stover,  Berkeley,  Wil 
liams,  Stokes,  and  other  Readjusters,  that  he  might 
advise  them  in  accordance  with  the  various  require 
ments  of  his  party. 

The  general  had  expected  the  negro  outbreak. 
He  did  not  altogether  object  to  negro  rowdyism  and 
crime,  which  he  thought  would  extend  throughout 
the  state,  provided  they  were  not  carried  to  ex 
tremes — or  so  far  as  to  alienate  the  votes  of  his 
plain  white  people.  Such  disturbances  would  give 
him  colourable  excuse  to  disfranchise  the  negro  im 
mediately  after  the  election,  should  he  see  fit  to  do 
so.  But  he  was  inclined  to  reward  the  negroes, 


THE    BETRAYAL  215 

mould  them  into  a  unit,  which  he  could  hold  in  his 
hand,  and  thus  build  up  an  impregnable  party  organi 
sation  that  would  be  his,  and  his  alone. 

As  Mr.  Harrison  parted  from  General  Murphy, 
after  they  had  shaken  hands,  and  after  each  gentle 
man  had  removed  his  hat,  the  Morven  family  car 
riage,  which  contained  Judge  and  Mrs.  Braxton 
and  Mr.  Taliaferro  and  Miss  Braxton,  drove  by. 
All  the  occupants  of  the  carriage  bowed  gravely,  as 
did  Mr.  Harrison,  although  he  did  not  smile.  The 
general's  face  was  wreathed  in  smirks  as  he  nodded 
familiarly.  The  Morven  party  had  looked  directly 
at  Mr.  Harrison,  but  had  not  seen  General  Murphy. 

Captain  Temple  saw  the  hand  of  his  leader 
in  the  invitation  that  was  delivered  to  him  by  Mr. 
Harrison's  servant. 

WARRENTON,  VIRGINIA. 
My  dear  Mr.  Harrison: 

I  thank  you  for  your  kind  invitation  to  meet  General 
Murphy  at  Inglewood  at  supper  to-night,  which  I  accept 
with  much  pleasure. 

Permit  me  to  take  this  opportunity  to  explain  the  peculiar 
situation  in  which  you  found  me  this  morning. 

Berkeley  and  a  few  of  his  friends  had  made  their  way 
into  my  office  just  before  you  came,  to  say  that  the  rioting 
of  yesterday  and  last  night  was  the  work  of  a  few  irrespon 
sible  persons,  and  that  they  would  hold  such  culprits  in 
check  in  the  future,  even  though  it  be  necessary  to  turn 
them  out  of  the  church. 

They  had  not  been  invited  to  attend  the  conference,  as 
doubtless  you  thought. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

JAMES  SPOTSWOOD  TEMPLE. 

Friday  afternoon. 


216  THE    BETRAYAL 

Mr.  Harrison  and  General  Murphy  had  been  in 
the  drawing-room  of  Inglewood  only  a  few  mo 
ments  when  Captain  Temple  was  announced.  The 
old  servant,  Jake,  tried  to  conceal  his  humiliation; 
and,  aside  from  an  unnatural  solemnity,  succeeded 
in  concealing  his  disgust  at  being  obliged  to  toler 
ate  the  man  who  held  negroes  to  be  his  master's 
equals.  Supper  lasted  from  seven  till  eleven. 

While  Harrison  was  in  the  library,  where  he  had 
gone  to  search  for  an  atlas,  Murphy  took  advantage 
of  his  absence  to  speak  to  Temple  confidentially. 

"  Keep  up  the  good  work  that  you  began  last 
night,  Captain.  I  wholly  approve  your  course,  and 
I  trust  your  judgment  as  to  the  licence  that  should 
be  allowed  to  blacks.  The  rioting  has  done  us  no 
harm.  To  the  contrary,  it  will  tend  to  arouse  the 
negroes  and  bring  their  entire  vote  into  our  party, 
while  their  conduct  will  not  lose  us  the  vote  of  a 
single  white  man.  Publicly  we  shall  disclaim,  as 
already  you  have  disclaimed,  all  responsibility  for 
outbreaks  of  violence.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
negroes  must  be  held  within  proper  bounds.  Your 
sacrifice  shall  be  rewarded:  in  the  ultimate  approval 
of  the  whole  people,  who  will  show  their  apprecia 
tion  of  your  service  by  calling  upon  you  to  fill  the 
highest  office  in  their  gift,  and  when — I  need  not 
mention  his  name — by  his  many  blunders  has  proved 
his  unfitness  for  a  political  career.  Inferiority 
first  manifests  itself  in  the  airs  and  graces  of  su 
periority.  The  man  that  feels  that  he  is  better  than 
his  neighbour  should  be  in  the  pulpit.  His  place  is 
not  the  political  arena,  where  he  must  give  and  re 
ceive  blows.  Life  for  you  will  be  rich  in  achieve 
ment  and  in  reward." 


THE    BETRAYAL  217 

Then  Mr.  Harrison  returned  with  the  atlas.  The 
conferees  went  over  the  routes  of  the  various  cam 
paign  orators,  and  made  arrangements  for  Harrison 
and  Temple  to  speak  in  every  part  of  the  common 
wealth.  As  Harrison  would  complete  his  present 
itinerary  the  latter  part  of  the  following  week, 
Murphy  told  Temple  to  arrange  with  Gary  Dabney 
for  a  joint  debate  between  Parson  Jones  and 
Colonel  Daingerfield,  to  be  held  in  Warrenton, 
Harrison  to  introduce  Jones,  and  Dabney  to  intro 
duce  Daingerfield.  In  the  meanwhile  Captain  Tem 
ple  and  Messrs.  Rice,  Simpson,  Stover,  Stokes, 
and  other  prominent  white  Readjusters,  and  the 
preachers  Berkeley  and  Williams,  aided  by  their 
followers,  would  round  up  the  voting  population  of 
Fauquier  and  adjacent  counties. 

Shortly  before  eleven  o'clock  the  general  dis 
missed  all  political  matters  with  a  characteristic  ges 
ture  and  began  to  relate  reminiscences  of  the  war. 
He  told  many  anecdotes  in  which  he  referred  to  the 
military  prowess  of  Captain  Temple's  father  and 
the  generosity  of  Judge  Harrison.  The  judge  had 
been  too  old  to  draw  his  sword,  but  had  pur 
chased  Confederate  bonds  liberally,  and  had  aided 
Virginia's  armies  while  he  was  at  home  more  than 
he  could  have  done  had  he  gone  into  battle.  After 
a  while,  half-jokingly,  yet  seriously,  the  General 
addressed  them. 

"  Gentlemen,  fight  if  you  will,  after  this  war  is 
over,  for  young  men  will  fight;  cut  each  other's 
throats,  if  you  will,  but  wait  until  the  honour  of 
Virginia  shall  have  been  saved.  Boys,  I  would  have 
had  you  both  shot  had  you  been  with  me  at  the 
Crater  and  there  permitted  personal  differences  to 


218  THE    BETRAYAL 

affect  the  fortunes  of  war.  The  fight  ahead  of  us 
will  be  bloodless;  but  that  fight  means  more  to  Vir 
ginia  than  did  the  Crater.  It  means  even  more  than 
did  her  recent  war." 

After  Temple  left  Murphy  spoke  to  Harrison 
confidentially. 

"A  man  like  that  should  no  more  hold  a  respon 
sible  position  in  a  government  than  in  an  army. 
However,  he  should  be  permitted  to  fight  in  the 
ranks  so  long  as  his  work  is  satisfactory.  Places 
of  trust  and  honour  are  for  competent  men." 

When  the  general  left  the  next  morning  he  felt 
entirely  satisfied  with  the  work  that  he  had  ac 
complished  in  Warrenton.  He  had  felt  the  temper 
of  his  followers;  he  had  seen  the  rioting;  a  breach 
between  Harrison  and  Temple  had  been  prevented; 
socially  he  had  been  recognised  by  two  ge'ntlemen; 
he  had  made  his  party  more  respectable  in  Fauquier. 
Soon  the  battle  would  be  over  and  victory  his.  Then 
he  would  politically  assassinate  Temple  and  Harri 
son.  He  would  tolerate  no  rival,  however  weak. 

After  the  general  had  gone  to  his  room  Jake 
handed  to  his  master  a  note  that  William  had 
brought  over  from  Morven. 

MORVEN. 
My  dear  Mr.  Harrison: 

I  was  cruel  to  you  last  night — and  I  thought  that  I  never 
could  be  cruel  to  you  again.  Forgive  me.  I  shall  never 
forgive  myself — but  you  forgive  me — please,  please!  I  am 
so  sorry,  so  sorry! 

Sincerely  yours, 

LELIA  CAPERTON  BRAXTON. 
Friday  night. 


THE    BETRAYAL  219 

INGLE  WOOD. 
Dearest: 

Forgive  you?  Has  there  been  a  minute  since  I  left  you 
last  night  when  the  harsh  words  that  I  said  to  you  have  not 
rung  in  my  ears?  This  campaign  seems  to  have  altered  my 
whole  character. 

Yes,  you  have  been  cruel  to  me — your  letter  was  cruel. 
That  you  should  ask  me  to  forgive  you! 

Oh,  my  dear,  my  dear,  my  dear,  I  love  you! 

My  love  made  me  speak  as  I  did  last  night — strange  as 
that  may  seem  to  you.  Now  all  that  I  can  say  is — I  love 
you.  Yesterday  I  thought  that  I  never  could  love  you 
more  than  I  did  then ;  now  I  think  that  my  love  of  yester 
day  was  a  little  thing — too  poor  to  be  called  love. 

I  leave  to-morrow  morning,  to  resume  my  itinerary.  I 
shall  not  return  to  Warrenton  until  the  latter  part  of  next 
week,  when  I  shall  call  to  see  you — for  I  shall  never  forget 
what  you  said  to  me:  "I  shall  never  refuse  to  see  you, 
John."  You  did  not  call  me  "  Mr.  Harrison  "  last  night. 

I  shall  think  of  you  by  day  and  dream  of  you  by  night 
until  I  return — and  may  God  be  with  you. 

JOHN. 

Friday  night. 

At  the  Warren-Green  Miss  Gladys  Lancaster  was 
having  her  usual  good  time.  As  she  liked  to  visit, 
she  never  stayed  in  Charlottesville  longer  than  nec 
essary,  and  that  was  only  when  the  captain  per 
emptorily  commanded  her  to  stay  at  home  with  her 
mother.  Ambitious  for  her  children,  Mrs.  Lan 
caster  was  quite  willing  to  sacrifice  herself;  so  her 
daughters  had  spent  nearly  all  their  later  days  away 
from  home.  Miss  Lancaster  was  no  exception.  She 
spent  the  greater  part  of  her  time  in  visiting  her 
married  sisters,  so  that  Mrs.  Lancaster  knew  Miss 
Lancaster  only  slightly. 


220  THE    BETRAYAL 

"  Gladys,  don't  you  think  that  it's  about  time  for 
you  to  go  home?" 

"  Why,  father!  How  can  you  think  of  such  a 
thing,  when  the  political  situation  makes  it  abso 
lutely  necessary  for  us  to  be  in  Warrenton?  Be 
sides,  Mr.  Taliaferro " 

"  Now,  Gladys,  that's  not  true.  Mr.  Taliaferro 
has  no  eyes  for  anybody  but  Lelia  Braxton,  as  you 
very  well  know." 

"  Why,  father!    He  calls  to  see  me  often!  " 

And  he  did;  for  the  energetic  Miss  Lancaster 
wrote  to  him  at  least  twice  a  week.  She  never  wrote 
less  than  two  letters  a  week  to  all  the  marriageable 
gentlemen  of  her  acquaintance.  She  had  frequently 
brought  about  situations  that  had  required  Mr. 
Taliaferro,  in  common  courtesy,  to  call  to  see 
her. 

There  was  one  gentleman  in  Warrenton  to  whom 
she  did  not  write:  Mr.  Gary  Gordon  Dabney,  whose 
attentions  she  discouraged.  She  did  not  care  to 
have  that  gentleman  monopolise  her  entire  time; 
moreover,  she  had  to  consider  that  Mr.  Taliaferro 
as  well  as  a  few  other  gentlemen  of  wealth  scat 
tered  through  the  states  were  matrimonial  possi 
bilities.  Again,  she  saw  that  she  merely  had  to 
stretch  out  her  hand  to  gather  Dabney  in,  and  she 
was  not  ready  to  do  that.  She  liked  him  well 
enough,  better  than  any  man  she  knew;  but  finan 
cially  he  was  unsatisfactory. 

"Now  run  along,  that's  a  dear  old  dad;  for  here 
comes  the  next  governor — over  the  left!  C'est  a 
moi  de  faire  le  jeu  I " 

"As  usual!" 

And  with  that  exclamation,  delivered  in  the  air 


THE    BETRAYAL  221 

of      suit-yourself-my-child-your-face-is-your- fortune- 
remember,  the  captain  took  his  departure. 

"Hello,  Caryl  I  hear  that  you  are  going  to  be 
our  next  governor.  I  just  bet  my  bottom  dollar 
you'll  win." 

"I  thank  you,  Miss  Lancaster;  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  I  shall  receive  the  nomination;  but  I  came 
to  see  you,  not  to  talk  politics.  I  have  had  enough 
of  this  campaign  since  last  week — with  negroes 
grown  to  be  our  social  equals,  nourished  by  the  food 
that  has  been  fed  to  them  by  those  excellent  gentle 
men,  Captain  Temple  and  Dr.  Berkeley.  Surely  you 
do  not  expect  me  to  talk  about  such  gross  matters 
with  you.  The  things  that  I  wish  to  say  to  you  are 
much  nearer  to  my  heart.  There  is  a  great  deal  that 
I  wish  to  say  to  you,  Miss  Gladys,  if  I  may." 

"  And  why  shouldn't  you  talk  politics  with  me, 
pray!  Do  you  mean  to  say  I  haven't  sense  enough 
to  understand?  " 

"  But  why  should  I  talk  politics  when  there 
are  many  things  more  important  that  I  wish  to  say 
to  you?" 

"That's  a  Yankee's  answer.  A  pity,  isn't  it,  that 
you  were  too  young  to  be  a  soldier?  I  want  to  talk 
politics — and  I  just  will !  You  must  tell  me  every- 
thing'that  happened  to-day." 

"I  certainly  will  not!  Why  should  a  beautiful, 
gentle,  lovable  girl  like  you,  fairer  than  the  lily, 
more  beautiful  than  the  rose,  more — more — more 
—why  should  you  know  anything  of  the  horrors  of 
this  campaign?  No;  I  shall  keep  you  as  far  away 
as  I  can  from  Tim  Murphys  and  Jim  Temples." 

"Why,  Caryl    Aren't  you  ashamed  of  yourself! 


222  THE     BETRAYAL 

I  just  despise  to  hear  a  man  abuse  another  man  be 
hind  his  back.  I  think  Captain  James  Spotswood 
Temple  is  just  splendid;  and  I  don't  believe  any  of 
the  mean  things  that  some  people  are  saying  about 
him.  //  est  tres  comme  il  faut.  There  are  negroes 
in  all  political  meetings.  You  talk  to  them  when 
you  make  speeches;  and  so  does  old  Colonel  Dain- 
gerfield;  and  I  just  bet  five  dollars  that  you  are  sorry 
when  you  don't  have  a  thousand  instead  of  a  dozen 
coons  in  your  congregations  when  you  orate." 

'  You  have  given  the  reason  why  I  am  not  will 
ing  to  talk  politics  with  you  or  with  any  woman. 
A  girl  should  be  pretty  and  good  and  everything 
nice.  All  that  she  ever  learns  about  politics  is  how 
to  love  the  black  sheep,  no  matter  how  much  she 
hears." 

"  Oh,  the  devil !  I  do  so  hate  the  pretty  little 
peaches-and-cream  girls  that  have  nothing  to  do  ex 
cept  to  sit  up  and  look  innocent  and  go  to  church 
and  be  goody-goody." 

Observing  the  astonishment  of  her  lover,  she 
continued,  with  mock  apology. 

"  I  should  have  said — je  ne  sals  quoi — plague  take 
it;  but  I  just  forgot,  and  didn't  behave  like  a  per 
fect  little  lady.  Oh,  I  do  so  wish  to  be  like  the 
pretty  little  innocents  that  say,  'Goodness  me!'  and, 
4  My  gracious! '  and,  '  Did  you  e-v-e-r! '  I  do!  oh, 
I  do!  I  do!" 

"  Nevertheless,  Gladys— 

"Miss  Lancaster,  ;/ — you — please!" 

"  Nevertheless,  Miss — nevertheless,  Gladys,  all 
that  a  girl  should  know  about  politics  is  this:  she 
should  belong  to  her  father's  party,  if  he  belongs  to 
the  Democratic  party;  she  should  choose  a  husband 


THE     BETRAYAL  223 

of  her  father's  political  faith,  and  I  say  this  al 
though  I  once  heard  you  say  that  a  girl  should  not 
choose  her  husband  along  party  lines.  Please  trust 
your  father's  estimate  of  Jim  Temple.  I  will  not 
permit  you  to  associate  with  the  scalawag." 

"And  how  long  have  you  had  the  right  to  boss 
me?  Jim  Temple  indeed!  I  like  him.  C'est  unbon 
diable.  He  is  always  well  groomed  ;  he  wears  pretty 
neckties;  and  then  he  does  say  such  beautiful  things 
to  me.  I  hope  he'll  call  to-night.  I  think  he  will. 
He  was  brave  enough  to  join  the  Readjuster  party 
long  before  John  Harrison  pitched  his  tent  on  M'ur- 
phy's  camping  ground!" 

"  You  are  mistaken.  Temple  did  not  enter  the 
party  until  some  time  after  John  Harrison  joined  it, 
as  is  well  known." 

"  He  did,  I  tell  you !  He  told  me  so  himself !  He 
had  an  interview  with  Murphy  at  least  three  days 
before  Lelia  Braxton's  beau  went  over  to  Peters- 
burg." 

"  Then  you  really  have  been  talking  with  Captain 
Temple." 

"  You  just  bet  I  have — certes — early  and  late, 
and  in  between  times !  Why  shouldn't  I  ?  Isn't  he 
our  social  equal?" 

"  Gladys,  if  you  are  ever  seen  with  that  scoundrel 
again,  I  will — I  will — I  will " 

"Will  what?" 

"Never  mind.      Good-night!" 

"  Come  back,  Cary;  oh,  please  do!" 

"  Not  to-night,  I  thank  you." 

"You  better  had." 

"No." 

"  But  I've  a  letter  for  you.     See,  here  it  is !  " 


224  THE    BETRAYAL 

"  I  thank  you." 

He  took  the  letter,  and  then  turned  to  leave  her 
without  another  word. 

She  snatched  it  from  his  hand. 

"No  you  don't,  Gary;  you  must  read  the  letter 
now,  then  tell  me  what  Jim  had  to  say  to  you 
that  was  so  important  that  Bob  had  to  bring  the 
letter  to  you  here.  I  didn't  know  that  you  corre 
sponded  with  Jim." 

"  I  shall  not  open  the  letter  until  I  get  home." 

"Then  I'll  open  it." 

"You  may,  indeed,  since  your  interest  is  so  great." 

"And  read  it?" 

"Yes." 

"Truly,  truly?" 

"Yes." 

"  Tres  bien — then  here  goes." 

"  WARRENTON,  VIRGINIA. 
"  Gary  Gordon  Dabney,  Esq., 

"  Warrenton,  Virginia. 
"Dear  Sir: 

"  As  chairman  of  the  Readjuster  party  for  this  county,  I 
have  the  honour  to  say  to  you  that  the  Reverend  and  Hon 
ourable  John  Henry  Jones  will  be  glad  to    meet    Colonel 
Francis  Southall  Daingerfield,  or  any  other  gentleman  that 
you  may  select,  in  joint  debate,  that  the  people  of  this  county 
may  be  informed  of  the  merits  of  the  political  issues  of  the 
campaign  from  your  point  of  view  as  well    as  our  own. 
"  With  great  respect,  sir,  I  am 
"  Very  truly  yours, 

"JAMES  SPOTSWOOD  TEMPLE, 

"  Chairman  Readjuster  Party 

for  Fauquier  county. 
"May  10,  1879." 


THE     BETRAYAL  225 

"How  are  you  going  to  answer,  Governor?" 

"  He  shall  have  my  reply  by  his  own  messenger." 

Miss  Lancaster  looked  over  Dabney's  shoulder  as 
he  wrote. 

'  You  are  wrong  to  say  '  yes,'  Gary.  I  know  a 
horse  from  a  goat.  I  never  lose  my  money.  And  I 
say  you  are  wrong." 

"  Please  speak  English.  I  never  attend  the  races, 
so  I  do  not  understand  the  language  of  the  track." 

"  Well,  this  here  am  a  race  between  two  horses — 
Murphy,  a  black  horse,  and  Dabney,  a  white 
horse." 

She  paused,  and  Dabney  knew  that  she  was  in  ear 
nest,  and  he  knew  that  under  that  lightness  of  man 
ner,  that  flippancy  which  he  abhorred,  yet  which  so 
greatly  charmed  him,  was  a  philosophy  no  less  pro 
found,  a  vision  no  less  keen  because  her  studies  had 
been  men  rather  than  books. 

UA  gentleman  oughtn't  to  meet  a  lout  on  terms 
of  equality.  The  parson  is  a  lout;  and  you'll  not 
help  your  party  the  least  little  bit  by  putting  your 
foot  into  Temple's  trap.  I  just  bet  that  trap  was 
built  by  Murphy.  I'm  not  going  to  bet  on  this  race, 
and  neither  is  popper.  You  think  you're  going  to 
win;  Murphy  thinks  he's  going  to  canter  in;  I  think 
either  you  or  Murphy  may  win  in  a  walk.  Are  men 
good?  Are  men  bad?  Will  Murphy  and  his  touts 
tumble  Virginia  over  into  the  mud?  Will  the  peo 
ple  be  faithful  to  the  gents  or  to  their  owns?  But  I 
win.  I  bet  my  bottom  dollar  on  that  proposition. 
John- 

"  You  mean  Mr.  Harrison." 

"Yes,  John — John  Harrison!  He's  certain  to 
be  nominated,  and  you  are  certain  to  run  against 


226  THE    BETRAYAL 

him.  If  John  wins,  I'll  be  Mrs.  Governor  of  Vir 
ginia;  if  you  win,  I'll  be  Mrs.  Governor  of  Virginia. 
I  shall  marry  the  man  that  wins." 

"Has  Mr.  Harrison  asked  you  to  marry  him?" 

"Not  yet;  but  he's  no  longer  engaged  to  Lelia 
Braxton — and  all  the  men  I  know  that  have  been 
jilted  come  to  me  for  sympathy." 

u  Would  you  accept  Miss  Braxton's  discarded 
lover?" 

"  I  certainly  would.  Because  Lelia  Braxton 
doesn't  know  a  good  thing  when  she  sees  it  is  no  rea 
son  why  I  should  be  a  damn  fool.  Oh,  pardonnez- 
moi  /  Now  you  are  mad  with  me  again  !  Oh,  Oh  ! 
I'm  so  sorry  !  " 

"No,  you  are  not;  but  I  am  distressed.  That  the 
woman  I  love  so  dearly  should  so  forget  herself  as 
to  use  language  that  is  out  of  keeping  with  the 
great  beauty  of  her  soul,  out  of  keeping  with  all 
the  winsome  grace  of  her  glorious  girlhood!" 

"Then  you  do  like  me  a  little  bit?" 

He  forced  her  into  his  arms  despite  her  struggles 
and  passionately  kissed  her  again  and  again. 

"  Gladys,  I  love  you — I  love  you — love  you — love 
you — love  you  !  Great  God,  how  I  love  you !  Will 
you  marry  me?  I  ask  you  again — I  believe  that  I 
have  asked  you  a  thousand  times  already — will  you 
marry  me — now?" 

"Never!" 

"That  is  well — for  you  and  for  me.  I  believe 
that  I  hate  you  as  much  as  I  love  you." 

"Oh,  no  you  don't!  You  just  think  I'm  not  quite 
proper.  Take  my  advice:  marry  ole  M.iss  Polly 
Boiling.  She's  the  properest  gyurl  I  know.  You 
would  be  oh  so  happy  with  her,  oh  so  happy ! " 


THE    BETRAYAL  227 

He  left  her  angrily.  She  went  to  the  window  to 
peep  out  from  behind  the  shades  as  he  strode  rap 
idly  toward  his  home. 

"  You  dear  old  bear !  Of  course  I'll  marry  you — 
that  is,  if  Dick  Taliaferro  or  Lord  Bow-legged 
Thing-um-a-jig  or  somebody  else  richer  or  socially 
better  than  you  balks  at  the  last  hurdle." 

"  Why,  father  dear,  I  thought  that  you  had  gone 
to  hear  Uncle  Daingerfield  and  Mr.  Jones  speak." 

"  Lelia,  I  have  waited  until  the  last  minute.  I 
feel  humiliated.  For  the  first  time  in  my  life  I  shall 
be  in  an  audience  composed  of  negroes,  carpet 
baggers,  and  thieves;  and  in  a  way  they  will  be  my 
equals,  socially  and  politically.  I  may  wrong  my 
country  and  myself  when  I  become  a  part  of  that 
assemblage,  but  Daingerfield  shall  have  the  moral 
support  of  my  presence,  and  that  of  every  gentle 
man  in  this  county,  although  I  fear  that  the  end 
does  not  justify  the  means.  Your  uncle  was  with 
Murphy  at  the  crater.  Now  that  Murphy  is 
Virginia's  enemy  he  is  not  afraid  to  meet  him;  nor 
is  he  afraid  to  meet  the  scalawags  that  follow  him. 
He  will  teach  all  Readjusters,  black  and  white,  in 
a  few  words — teach  them  fundamental  morality. 
Why,  Lelia,  why?  Because  men  of  honour  can 
always  meet  and  vanquish  men  that  are  dishonour 
able — always,  whatever  the  numerical  odds." 

Judge  Braxton's  excitement  subsided  as  he  saw 
his  daughter's  distressed  face.  The  agony  in  her 
blue  eyes,  the  eyes  that  were  her  mother's  as  well 
as  her  own,  aroused  all  his  fatherhood.  This 
man  had  seldom  failed  to  control  his  emotions.  A 
long  lifetime  devoted  to  the  study  of  the  Greek 


228  THE    BETRAYAL 

poets,  many  years  devoted  to  an  important  law 
practice,  and  twenty  years  on  the  bench,  had  mel 
lowed  his  judgments  of  men.  He  had  believed  that 
the  time  was  passed  when  he  could  be  moved  to 
deep  anger  or  resentment.  Now  his  daughter's 
eyes,  so  soft,  yet  so  intelligent,  her  face  so  beautiful, 
so  like  her  mother's — his  daughter  that  so  much  re 
sembled  his  three  sons  that  had  laid  down  their 
lives  for  Virginia  as  they  fought  under  her  flag — 
his  daughter  reminded  him  of  his  duty  to  this  his 
only  daughter.  Never  again  would  he  speak  harshly 
of  John  Harrison.  He  stooped  and  kissed  her,  then 
strode  from  the  house  and  walked  rapidly  in  the 
direction  of  Warrenton. 

As  the  judge  approached  the  court-house  he  care 
fully  studied  the  large  crowd  that  had  gathered 
there.  The  few  gentlemen  in  the  assemblage,  very 
young  men,  or  very  old  men — those  that  had  been 
too  young  to  enter  the  army,  or  too  old — were  un 
usually  serious.  There  was  Captain  Lancaster,  now 
gravely  quiet,  now  angrily  reprimanding  some  lout. 
There  was  old  General  Dabney.  What  could  he  be 
thinking  as  he  looked  upon  the  passing  show? 
There  was  the  venerable  physician,  Mr.  Carter. 
There  was  Tom  Tazewell,  whose  boyish  spirits  had 
seemed  to  be  inexhaustible,  looking  as  if  some  great 
calamity  had  bowed  him  into  the  quietude  of  the 
aged,  there  a  young  man  beastly  drunk,  there  an 
old  man  whose  eyes  shone  with  unnatural  lustre,  and 
there  a  negro  offensively  forcing  upon  his  white 
associates  a  sense  of  his  superiority  to  them.  Sadly 
the  judge  looked  on. 

In  the  faces  of  all  those  yeomen  and  peasants 
were  the  unmistakable  marks  of  irresponsibility, 


THE    BETRAYAL  229 

greed,  covetousness,  the  excitement  of  the  unexpected 
— Hugh  White  and  Joe  Miller  excepted,  who  were 
endeavouring  to  force  yeomen  and  peasants  to  real 
ise  their  degradation,  or  compelling  them  to  be 
orderly. 

The  judge  went  hither  and  thither  in  the  crowd, 
courteously  bowing  to  those  that  he  knew,  the  while 
endeavouring  to  devise  some  plan  whereby  the  de 
luded  people  might  be  brought  back  to  their  former 
condition  of  honour  and  contentment — some  plan 
by  which  Virginia  should  be  able  to  strengthen  as 
well  as  to  hold  her  high  position  among  the  nations 
of  the  world  ;  some  way  by  which  her  dearest  treas 
ure  might  be  conserved,  the  treasure  that  had  been 
a  reflection  of  her  national  life  for  nearly  three  cen 
turies — honour  ;  honour  like  that  of  Caesar's  wife — 
honour  beyond  question. 

At  one  end  of  the  platform  that  had  been  built 
over  the  steps  leading  to  the  court-house  door  were 
Mr.  John  Randolph  Harrison  and  the  Reverend 
and  Honourable  John  Henry  Jones;  at  the  other 
end  were  Mr.  Gary  Gordon  Dabney  and  Colonel 
Francis  Southall  Daingerfield;  in  the  centre  was 
Captain  James  Spotswood  Temple,  the  chairman  of 
the  meeting.  Temple  had  told  his  followers  that 
no  one  would  be  allowed  on  the  platform  other 
than  the  speakers.  Neither  Colonel  Daingerfield 
nor  Mr.  Harrison,  Mr.  Dabney,  nor  any  other  gen 
tleman,  would  be  present,  he  knew,  if  he  permitted 
his  black,  tan,  and  white  friends  to  occupy  seats  on 
the  platform — such  negro  men  as  the  two  preachers, 
Berkeley  and  Williams,  and  such  white  men  as 
Stokes,  Stover,  Rice,  and  Simpson.  Mr.  Rice  had 
vigorously  protested  against  the  captain's  decision; 


23o  THE    BETRAYAL 

but  Temple  had  explained  that  the  merchant  could 
work  for  the  holy  cause  much  more  effectively  by 
mingling  with  the  crowd.  The  senatorial  candidate 
could  not  afford  to  offend  his  prospective  son-in-law, 
the  future  governor  of  Virginia  and  one  of  the 
leaders  of  his  party,  so  he  obeyed  orders. 

The  fame  of  the  parson  as  a  stump  speaker  was 
firmly  established.  He  had  the  reputation  among 
his  followers  of  being  the  wittiest  and  most  effective 
debater  the  state  had  produced,  and  he  certainly 
swayed  audiences  and  achieved  success  through  his 
personality,  if  not  by  his  oratory.  He  was  success 
ful  to  an  amazing  degree. 

The  ease  and  grace  with  which  Harrison  intro 
duced  Jones,  as  well  as  his  striking  presence,  his  per 
fect  composure  and  his  mastery  of  the  situation, 
together  with  the  peculiar  faculty  that  he  had  of 
speaking  directly  to  every  man  in  the  audience  as 
though  his  words  were  addressed  to  him  personally, 
the  rich  timbre  of  his  voice,  the  selection  of  euphoni 
ous  as  well  as  powerful  words,  and  his  thorough 
knowledge  of  his  subject  and  his  audience  reminded 
Judge  Braxton  of  his  old  friend,  the  father  of  this 
young  man.  What  a  splendid  specimen  of  young 
manhood!  An  orator  born,  as  the  young  Greeks  of 
old,  ready  to  meet  the  world  in  the  greatest  of  all 
arenas — that  devoted  to  debate. 

Then  the  parson  rose.  He  adjusted  his  large 
gold-rimmed  spectacles;  carelessly  acknowledged 
the  introduction  by  merely  nodding  in  Harri 
son's  direction;  deliberately  looked  at  his  audience; 
stared  first  at  one  man  and  then  at  another,  now  to 
the  right  and  now  to  the  left,  and  now  directly  in 
front  of  him;  then  assumed  his  favourite  pulpit  ex- 


THE    BETRAYAL  231 

pression;  then  came  back  to  earth;  then  smiled  com 
prehensively,  an  all-inclusive  smile,  and  then  turned 
and  bowed  to  the  chairman.  Next  he  looked  fixedly 
at  Harrison. 

"  A  fine  young  man  that.  His  father  was  a  dear 
friend  of  mine  ;  and  I  don't  believe  that  any  man 
ever  lived — who  never  received  the  benefits  of  bap 
tism — who  was  nearly  so  good  as  old  Judge  Har 
rison.  He  was  the  salt  of  the  earth." 

The  good  parson  knew  thoroughly  the  political 
game  as  it  was  played  by  his  kind.  After  compli 
menting  Fauquier  men,  living  and  dead,  always 
modifying  his  compliments  by  anecdotes  that  made 
the  subjects  of  his  remarks  human,  and  after  thor 
oughly  establishing  himself  in  the  hearts  of  his 
hearers  (for  many  were  attracted  to  this  man,  in 
whom  were  combined  the  innocence  of  a  young  girl 
and  the  knavery  of  a  criminal,  a  man  who  would 
talk  about  honour  in  one  breath  and  in  the  next 
persuade  the  wife  of  a  political  opponent  to  betray 
her  husband  by  telling  his  secrets1)  he  would  proceed 
with  a  speech  of  statistics,  every  now  and  then  paus 
ing  to  tell  some  coarse  anecdote  that  the  crowd  found 
extremely  humorous  and  witty,  but  which  was  so 
rugged  as  to  be  intolerable  to  -gentlemen.  At  night 
he  would  write  an  account  of  the  meeting  for  several 
newspapers,  in  which  he  would  praise  himself,  ridi 
cule  his  opponents,  colour  the  report  for  his  own 
benefit,  and  sign  with  a  fictitious  name. 

After  he  had  taken  off  and  replaced  on  his  nose 
the  great  gold-rimmed  spectacles  several  times,  he 
gazed  through  them  as  though  he  would  read  his 
statistics  in  a  way  to  indicate  that  his  vision  had  been 

1  Autobiography  of  John  E.  Massey,  p.  212. 


232  THE     BETRAYAL 

impaired  by  his  search  for  truth.  His  oratory  was 
new  to  Virginia — the  oratory  of  figures  that  were 
not  figures  of  speech.  The  Bible  was  his  arithmetic; 
the  "plain"  people  his  slate;  the  public  debt  his 
problem. 

With  curiosity  mingled  with  contempt,  humili 
ated  and  outraged,  suffering  in  the  shame  of  his 
country,  Judge  Braxton  listened  to  the  sophistries 
of  Parson  Jones. 

''  The  poor  fellow  is  an  honest  man,  though  mis 
led;  an  honest  man  blindly  leading  these  blind  crea 
tures — at  least  I  ought  to  be  charitable  enough  to 
think  so,  for  he  is  one  of  God's  ministers.  But  oh, 
the  awful  untruth  that  he  is  promulgating,  the  fire 
brand  that  he  is  tossing  among  these  poor  creatures, 
already  writhing  in  agonies  that  they  do  not  under 
stand,  suffering  like  dumb  beasts,  not  knowing  why 
they  suffer,  not  even  knowing  that  they  suffer,  yet 
tottering  under  burdens  too  great  for  them  to  bear! 
And  whom  did  Murphy  and  Jones  and  their  kind, 
and  Stover  and  Rice  and  their  like,  have  to  teach 
them  honour?  The  mantle  of  charity  indeed  must 
cover  the  enemies  of  my  poor  country!  " 

But  bitter  thoughts  continued  to  dominate  the 
judge.  There  was  his  old  friend  Temple's  son,  a 
scalawag;  there  was  the  son  of  the  man  that  he  had 
respected  above  all  other  men,  the  man  who  had 
been  on  the  bench  with  him,  his  boy, — the  pride  of 
that  old  man's  heart,  his  only  son, — a  leader  among 
Virginia's  enemies.  This  young  man  had  asked  for 
the  hand  of  his  only  daughter;  and  he  had  not 
hesitated  to  trust  her  life  to  his  keeping. 

The  parson,  animated,  but  still  maintaining  his 
conversational  style  of  oratory,  advanced  to  the 


THE    BETRAYAL  233 

front  of  the  platform  with  easy  grace,  his  confidence 
in  himself  and  in  his  figures  fully  as  great  as  his 
trust  in  the  plain  people.  With  the  spirit  of  one 
born  to  command,  with  the  atmosphere  of  force 
that  marked  him  as  a  leader  of  men,  the  parson  com 
pelled  the  judge  to  suspend  his  bitter  thoughts  for 
a  while,  for  he  became  lost  in  admiration  of  the 
oratory  of  the  most  persuasive  speaker  of  the  Read- 
juster  party.  The  fine  legal  mind  of  the  judge  was 
aroused  by  the  excellent  literary  style  in  which  the 
parson  delivered  his  arguments.  Sophistry,  all  soph 
istry  !  yet,  Judge  Braxton  knew  that  the  arguments 
would  have  great  weight  with  the  assembled — save 
only  those  few  that  were  gentlemen.  He  knew  that 
Parson  Jones  never  hoped  to  influence  the  Virginian 
gentlemen.  And,  marvel  among  marvels,  his  appeal 
was  to  reason,  not  to  the  passions  of  those  negroes, 
peasants,  and  yeomen  that  were  in  his  audience.  He 
called  upon  every  Virginian  worthy  of  the  name  to 
save  the  honour  of  Virginia — not  to  continue  to 
utter  high-sounding  promises,  foolish  under  the  cir 
cumstances,  but  to  support  the  party  of  action,  com 
posed  of  constructive  statesmen,  not  the  party  of 
empty  words. 

"The  voice  of  John  the  Baptist  crying  In  the 
wilderness,"  was  how  Major  John  W.  Daniel  de 
risively  characterised  this  Baptist  preacher. 

Not  once  had  Colonel  Daingerfield  raised  his 
head,  which  was  bowed  upon  his  breast.  One  might 
have  assumed  that  he  was  unconscious  of  his  sur 
roundings  had  it  not  been  for  the  flush  on  his  cheeks, 
gradually  increasing,  until  his  face  was  a  deep  red. 
When  the  parson  ceased  speaking  the  colonel  did 
not  wait  to  be  introduced,  but  immediately  advanced 


234  THE    BETRAYAL 

to  the  place  that  Jones  had  left.  The  Repudiators 
expected  a  violent  outburst  of  anger,  well  knowing 
the  colonel's  fierce  temper.  Instead  they  heard  the 
tones  of  a  master  commanding  his  inferiors  and  re 
assuring  his  friends. 

As  he  listened,  John  Harrison's  face  gradually 
became  as  red  as  the  colonel's,  nor  was  James  Tem 
ple  so  lost  to  shame  that  he  failed  altogether  to  feel 
his  degradation.  And  Parson  Jones — the  parson 
felt  that  there  was  indeed  an  impassable  gulf  be 
tween  the  Virginian  gentleman  and  the  Virginian  of 
lesser  rank.  Stover  and  his  kind  heard  the  colonel's 
commands  with  a  deepening  resolve  that  the  aris 
tocracy  should  make  way  for  them;  nor  did  they 
fail  to  foresee  the  keen  delight  that  would  be  theirs 
when  word  by  word  they  would  force  those  same 
utterances  down  the  throat  of  the  gentry.  The 
grandeur  of  that  commanding  figure,  the  contempt 
in  his  voice  and  manner,  were  those  of  the  offended 
God  as  he  drove  the  money-changers  from  His  tem 
ple.  His  spare  figure  stood  at  its  full  height,  his 
nostrils  were  dilated,  his  eyes  were  all  comprehen 
sive  as  he  thundered  his  reproof  and  uttered  his  com 
mands. 

"  I  address  the  gentlemen  that  are  present.  There 
is  Hut  one  way  to  get  rid  of  the  debt — pay  it.  Gen 
tlemen,  you  will  pay  your  debts.  You  always  ac 
knowledge  your  obligations.  The  honour  of  Vir 
ginia  is  safe  with  you.  Gentlemen,  my  compliments; 
I  bid  you  good  day." 

His  stature  seemed  to  increase  as  he  paused. 

"But  you,  overseers,  sons  of  redemptioners;  you 
negroes,  brutes  and  barbarians;  you  scalawags  and 
carpetbaggers;  you  Repudiators  that  call  yourselves 


THE    BETRAYAL  235 

Readjusters, — you  men  that  would  sell  the  honour 
of  Virginia, — honour,  a  virtue  that  none  of  you  ever 
had, — go  back  to  the  fields  where  you  belong!  Go 
back,  I  say!  Never  again  do  you  dare  to  say  to 
Virginian  gentlemen  that  they  shall  not  pay  their 
debts  and  yours !  Go  back  to  the  fields !  Go !  " 

As  some  monarch  leaving  his  throne,  Colonel 
Daingerfield  walked  majestically  across  the  plat 
form,  then  went  into  the  court-house. 

The  crowd  dispersed. 

As  John  Harrison  was  about  to  leave  the  platform 
he  saw  a  small  man  with  a  sweeping  grey  beard, 
dressed  as  a  farmer,  in  the  rear  of  the  audience. 

"A  singular  likeness  to  General  Murphy!"  he 
thought.  "  Perhaps  he  is  the  farmer  that  I  saw  at 
Calverton  yesterday,  for  General  Murphy  is  in 
Danville  to-day." 

That  Colonel  Daingerfield  had  made  a  serious 
mistake  Cary  Dabney  was  certain.  The  speech,  he 
thought,  would  not  gain  a  single  vote  for  the  Debt- 
payers,  and  the  parson  had  consolidated  the  vote  of 
the  heterogeneous  mass  of  yeomen,  peasants,  carpet 
baggers,  and  negroes,  and  had  delivered  that  vote 
to  Murphy.  However,  no  gentleman  in  the  assem 
blage  besides  Captain  Lancaster  and  Captain  Tem 
ple  agreed  with  him. 

No,  thought  all  other  aristocrats,  could  any  gen 
tleman  have  made  a  speech  that  could  have  favour 
ably  affected  the  vote  of  any  negro,  peasant,  or  yeo 
man  in  that  motley  throng?  The  speech  was  worthy 
of  Virginia's  best  traditions:  an  aristocrat  had  com 
manded  his  inferiors.  The  colonel's  only  alternative 
had  been  to  follow  them  in  their  ignorance  and  vice. 


236  THE    BETRAYAL 

"  A  statesman,"  said  Captain  Temple  to  Miss  Lan 
caster,  a  few  days  later,  "  should  follow  when  he  can 
not  lead,  and  then  become  the  leader  of  those  that  he 
followed." 

"  Maybe  so,"  she  had  lightly  said;  "  but  that  kind 
of  man  would  be  a  gent,  not  a  gentlemen.  Besides, 
the  gentry  would  be  dead  and  buried  right  away.  I 
don't  mean  you,  though;  'deed  I  don't! " 

The  young  leader  of  the  Debtpayers  was  deeply 
grieved  that  John  Harrison,  his  lifelong  friend,  was 
now  the  associate  of  thieves,  and  Virginia's  enemy. 
He  believed  Jones  to  be  a  scoundrel;  nor  could  he 
find  an  honest  man  in  all  the  Readjuster  party,  save 
John  Harrison.  How  should  he  treat  him?  He 
could  see  but  one  way:  shake  his  honest  hand  so 
long  as  it  should  be  honest,  and  he  did  not  believe 
that  the  time  would  come  when  he  would  refuse  to 
take  the  hand  of  this  his  best  friend,  a  man  that  he 
knew  as  well  as  one  man  may  know  another.  As 
to  Temple,  having  sunk  beneath  the  waters  of  unre- 
spectability,  that  creature  had  forfeited  his  right  to 
associate  with  gentlemen. 

As  Dabney  walked  toward  his  office  he  met  Har 
rison.  They  shook  hands  with  friendliness,  though 
with  some  embarrassment. 

"  Well,  Harrison,  the  word  seems  to  be  whispered 
about  that  you  and  I  are  to  oppose  each  other  for 
the  governorship.  I  shall  not  like  to  run  against 
you,  my  friend;  yet  I  take  pleasure  in  the  thought 
that  I  shall  oppose  a  gentleman.  You  will  not  per 
mit  Virginia  to  suffer  so  long  as  you  have  the  power 
to  spare  her  a  single  pain." 

"I  am  not  sure,  Dabney,  that  I  shall  accept  the 


THE    BETRAYAL  237 

nomination  if  it  be  offered  to  me.  There  are  men 
in  the  Readjuster  party  that  are  experienced  poli 
ticians — good  men,  too,  whose  ability  and  courage 
have  been  frequently  tested  by  Virginia  and  never 
found  wanting.  But  if  I  oppose  you,  I  too  shall  feel 
that  my  fight  is  with  a  worthy  antagonist.  Gary, 
boy,  these  are  days  that  try  friendship ;  but  I  believe 
that  I  may  say  that  our  friendship  will  never  be 
tried." 

The  young  men  looked  affectionately  into  each 
other's  eyes.  They  had  not  known  that  they  had 
complimented  each  other.  Affection  knows  no  com 
pliment. 

"Lelia!" 

"John!" 

"  I  am  back,  Lelia." 

"Yes,  John." 

"The  last  time  I  saw  you  we  quarrelled." 

"Y-e-s,  dear." 

"We  will  not  quarrel  to-night." 

"  N-o-o." 

He  took  her  hand,  hesitated,  then  reverently 
kissed  it. 

"  I  would  not  have  been  surprised  had  your 
father  refused  to  let  me  see  you  after  all  that  has 
occurred  during  the  last  two  weeks." 

"What  did  he  say?" 

'  I  am  glad  to  see  you,  my  boy.  My,  my,  my ! 
how  much  you  resemble  John  Harrison ! '  Then  he 
went  to  finish  a  chapter  of  his  commentary.  I  am 
very  fond  of  your  father." 

"  He  is  fond  of  you,  John.  This  evening  he 
heard  you  introduce  Mr.  Jones.  When  he  returned 


238  THE    BETRAYAL 

home,  he  said :  '  My  child,  some  day  John  Harri 
son  will  see  the  error  that  he  now  makes,  and  then 
he  will  be  of  great  value  to  this  commonwealth, 
fighting  for  Virginia  instead  of  against  her,  a  host 
in  himself.'  I  remember  every  word  that  he  said, 
dear — I  shall  never  forget  any  word  in  your  praise 
that  I  have  heard,  or  ever  shall  hear." 

'Your  father  was  at  that  meeting?" 

"Yes;  in  the  crowd." 

"And  he  spoke  of  me  that  way?" 

"Yes;  and  he  said  a  great  deal  more." 

"  But  he  did  not  suggest  a  plan  by  which  the  debt 
may  be  paid.  I  am  mistaken,  but  some  day  I  will 
see  the  error  of  my  way.  He  passes  his  time 
adversely  criticising  the  constructive  statesmanship 
of  others — the  plans  advocated  by  those  that  wish 
to  save  Virginia's  honour  and  her  sovereignty  and 
the  lives  of  her  people  at  the  same  time,  the  state 
craft  of  those  who  love  Virginia  as  your  father  loves 
her — but  never  once  does  he  offer  to  pay  the  debt 
in  money.  The  Debtpayers  have  paid  all  that  Vir 
ginia  owes  in  words  many  times." 

"  And  have  the  Readjusters  shown  constructive 
statesmanship,  John  dear?  I  do  not  know;  but  I 
wish  to  know — from  you." 

'  The  plan  is  my  own,  so  I  should  not  say  that 
it  is  the  creative  work  of  a  statesman.  But  I  do 
claim  that  it  is  a  device  by  which  Virginia's  honour 
may  be  saved,  her  resources  developed,  her  children 
educated,  and  the  bodily  necessities  of  tens  of  thou 
sands  of  women  and  children  relieved — the  widows 
and  orphans  that  were  left  to  every  man  in  Virginia 
as  a  sacred  trust.  At  least  my  plan  is  better  than  no 
plan." 


THE     BETRAYAL  239 

"  I  thought  that  the  Readjuster  plan  was  to  repu 
diate  the  debt." 

"  I  have  heard  of  no  Readjuster  plan  seriously 
considered  other  than  my  own,  which  I  have  already 
discussed  with  you." 

"  Suppose  the  creditors  do  not  accept  your  offer?  " 

'  Then  we  shall  force  them  to  do  so,  for  we  intend 
to  outlaw  all  the  old  bonds  that  have  not  been  ex 
changed  for  the  new  issue  within  one  year  from  the 
time  that  the  state  offers  to  exchange  the  new  bonds 
for  the  old." 

"  Why,  John !  that  would  not  be  honourable !  " 

"  Then  your  father  or  some  other  person  in  his 
party  should  pay  the  debt  in  money." 

"  I  would  not  accept  your  plan  were  I  a  bond 
holder." 

"Why  not?" 

"Because." 

"Is  that  your  reason?" 

"  I  would  never  receive  a  cent." 

"Is  that  your  faith  in  Virginia's  bonds?" 

"  That  would  be  my  faith  in  any  bonds  issued  that 
way." 

"  Would  you  be  more  confident  of  ever  receiving 
a  cent  if  the  commonwealth  simply  did  not  pay  the 
existing  bonds,  but  let  them  mature,  principal  and 
interest,  without  meeting  them  in  any  way?" 

"  Yes,  I  would.  Surely  it  is  useless  to  issue  new 
bonds,  or  to  make  new  promises,  until  the  old  bonds 
are  paid.  Now,  I  would  say  to  the  bondholders  that 
I  would  pay  every  cent  received  from  now  on  until 
the  debt  is  paid."' 

"The  first  thing  that  you  know  you  will  be  a 
statesman  yourself — the  best  in  all  Virginia." 


240  THE    BETRAYAL 

"  Please  do  not  be  sarcastic,  dear,  or  joke  about 
the  debt." 

"  We  were  not  to  quarrel." 

"  No-o-o." 

"  We  will  not  talk  any  more  about  politics  now." 

"  What  do  you  wish  to  talk  about,  John,  if  not 
about  the  debt?  Is  there  anything  else  that  we  can 
talk  about  until  the  debt  is  paid?  You  know  that  I 
love  you;  but  I  am  no  longer  engaged  to  you;  and 
I  shall  not  permit  you  to  call  to  see  me  as  my  lover. 
I  shall  not  let  you  treat  me  as  you  did  when  we  were 
betrothed." 

"  I  have  never  treated  you  with  any  more  famil 
iarity  than  I  have  any  other  woman  that  I  know, 
unless  I  have  kissed  your  hands  oftener  than  those 
of  other  women  that  I  revere,  and  have  told  you 
that  I  love  you.  Do  you  wish  me  to  stop  coming 
to  see  you?  May  I  not  say  to  you  that  I  love  you, 
even  if  we  are  not  engaged." 

"  Does  the  debt  amount  to  very  much  more  than 
all  the  people  in  the  state  are  worth?" 

"Why,  no;  of  course  not.  The  value  of  the  peo 
ple's  property  as  assessed,  which  is  probably  little 
more  than  half  its  real  value,  is  just  about  ten  times 
greater  than  the  debt." 

"Why,  John!  I  thought  that  the  people  owed 
ten  times  as  much  as  they  could  pay?" 

"  No,  nor  has  any  country  had  a  debt  so  large  as 
ours  in  proportion  to  her  population  and  developed 
resources,  even  in  days  of  great  prosperity." 

"  Well,  John,  the  settlement  of  the  debt  is  so  easy 
that  I  wonder  that  there  is  any  debt  to  pay.  Let 
everybody  give  one-tenth  of  his  property,  the  Bibli 
cal  tithe.  Then  we  can  say  to  the  creditors,  '  Here 


THE    BETRAYAL  241 

is  your  money,  every  cent,  paid  to  you  the  day  that 
it  is  due.'" 

"  You  are  the  only  Debtpayer  that  has  offered  to 
pay  the  debt  in  money.  You  see  you  are  a  con 
structive  statesman.  But  your  plan  is  not  workable. 
You  and  I  might  part  with  all  our  possessions,  but 
if  others  failed  to  follow  our  example  our  contribu 
tions  would  be  as  a  single  grain  of  sand  is  to  count 
less  thousands." 

"  Somebody  has  to  start  every  movement.  You 
and  I  can  start  this  one,  and  the  payment  of  the 
debt  may  be  the  result.  Why,  John,  there  is  your 
own  fortune,  and  father's,  and  Uncle  Daingerfield's, 
and  Captain  Temple's,  and  Mr.  Taliaferro's — why, 
even  Mr.  Jones,  the  preacher,  has  more  than  enough 
to  pay  his  share  of  the  debt.  We  will  all  pay  every 
thing  that  we  have  into  the  state  treasury — all  of 
us  that  have  wealth — and  let  the  poor  and  unfor 
tunate  keep  their  tenth.  Here  is  the  engagement 
ring  that  you  gave  to  me.  Take  it  away  with  you 
to-night,  dear,  and  sell  it  and  send  the  money  that 
you  get  for  it  to  Richmond.  I  shall  not  consent  to 
own  anything  of  value  until  the  debt  is  paid." 

As  she  handed  the  ring  to  her  lover  her  voice  fal 
tered,  but  not  her  eyes — the  eyes  that  John  Harri 
son  had  never  seen  so  beautiful. 

He  put  the  ring  on  her  finger  in  a  way  that  indi 
cated  that  he  meant  it  to  stay  there. 

"  Lelia,  early  to-morrow  morning  I  shall  arrange 
for  the  sale  of  Inglewood,  and  I  shall  send  to  the 
state  treasurer  every  cent  that  I  have;  I  shall  imme 
diately  make  preparations  to  sell  all  my  personal 
property,  and  I  shall  retain  only  the  clothes  that  I 
wear.  All  that  I  shall  make  I  shall  send  to  the 


242  THE    BETRAYAL 

state   treasurer,   except  barely  'enough   to  pay  my 
modest  living  expenses." 

Then  Lelia  Braxton  raised  John  Harrison's  hand 
to  her  lips,  and  then  they  sat  in  silence  for  a  while. 
Neither  looked  at  the  other,  nor  spoke;  nor  did  they 
touch  each  other  after  that  one  kiss  upon  the  young 
man's  hand.  After  a  while  John  Harrison  said: 
'  You  do  not  realise  as  I  do  the  awful  poverty 
of  our  people.  A  few  like  your  father  can  afford 
to  pay  the  present  high  tax  rate,  for  they  have 
money  well  invested  and  can  pay  out  a  great  deal 
without  serious  inconvenience  to  them;  but  remem 
ber,  Lelia,  the  capacity  of  a  nation  to  bear  taxation 
is  in  the  ratio  of  the  productiveness  of  her  people. 
Virginia's  wealth  is  her  natural  resources,  and  of 
these  her  lands  only  are  developed — her  lands  that 
now  are  largely  uncultivated,  unproductive,  dead 
capital,  recently  laid  waste  by  the  armies  of  thirty- 
six  nations,  which  camped  on  her  farms  for  four 
years.  The  owners  or  tenants  were  killed  in  war 
fare;  the  farms  were  seized  by  carpetbaggers  and 
sold  for  unpaid  taxes,  so  now  there  is  only  a  little 
with  which  to  pay  the  creditors,  although  the  prop 
erty  is  worth  ten  times  the  amount  of  the  public 
debt.  Your  plan  can  not  succeed.  But  every  Vir 
ginian,  man  and  woman,  should  deliver  his  or  her 
property  to  the  creditors,  as  you  will  deliver  yours." 

Lelia  Braxton  had  dealt  her  lover  a  severe  blow. 
He  had  come  to  tell  her  that  he  had  made  every 
preparation  for  the  sale  of  all  his  property.  For 
ten  days  he  had  looked  forward  to  this  night,  after 
which  she  could  never  believe  him  to  be  less  than 
honourable.  And  he  had  merely  followed  her  lead. 
But  she  should  never  know  from  him  that  her  plan 


THE    BETRAYAL  243 

was  similar  to  his  own  conception,  matured  ten  days 
before  hers.  He  had  not  stopped  to  consider  the 
political  effect  of  his  course,  except  in  this :  the  cred 
itors  should  see  and  the  world  should  know  the 
metal  in  which  Virginians  were  cast. 

As  it  is  true  that  a  man  is  what  he  is,  not  what 
he  says  that  he  is,  nor  what  he  believes  that  he  is, 
also  it  is  true  that  what  he  may  say  does  not  add 
to  the  sum  of  the  knowledge  of  the  person  to  whom 
he  speaks  as  to  what  he  really  is.  John  Harrison 
need  have  felt  no  anxiety  nor  regret.  Lelia  Braxton 
would  have  thought  no  more  of  him  had  he  reached 
the  pinnacle  of  glory;  nor  would  she  have  thought 
less  of  him  had  he  committed  some  act  of  infamy. 
Yes,  a  man  is  what  he  is;  and  Lelia  Braxton  knew 
John  Harrison — and  loved  him. 

But  we  all  pretend  to  judge  a  man  by  what  he 
says  and  by  what  he  does;  and  we  all  like  to  be 
praised  for  what  we  do  that  we  think  is  more  than 
usually  creditable  in  us;  and  John  Harrison  was 
young,  and  Lelia  Braxton  was  young.  And  we  all 
are  young  so  long  as  we  live. 


CHAPTER   SIX 

THE  morning  after  John  Harrison  told 
Lelia  Braxton  that  he  would  give  all  his 
property  to  the  creditors  of  Virginia 
Judge  Braxton  was  at  work  in  the  library.  His 
daughter  entered  the  room,  hesitated,  then  advanced 
toward  her  father  and  gently  placed  her  hand  upon 
his  shoulder.  He  drew  her  head  down  to  his,  looked 
into  her  troubled  eyes,  then  kissed  her.  He  treated 
his  daughter  with  more  than  usual  tenderness  these 
days,  and  showed  by  many  little  services  that  he 
knew,  that  he  sympathised. 

"Well,  daughter?" 

"  Father  dear,  how  much  is  my  property  worth?  " 

"  Let  me  see.  Your  uncle  Caperton  left  you  seven 
thousand  dollars,  which  I  invested  in  bank  stock;  I 
invested  your  dividends  in  the  same  way;  so  your 
stock-holdings  are  now  worth  fully  fifteen  thousand 
dollars.  Why  do  you  ask,  little  girl?" 

"  Father,  please  sell  all  my  stock  this  morning 
and  pay  the  public  debt." 

The  judge  smiled. 

"Why,  little  daughter;  do  you  think  that  you 
can  pay  the  public  debt  with  fifteen  thousand  dol 
lars?" 

"No,  father  dear,  I  am  not  so  silly  as  that;  but 
I  wish  to  pay  to  the  creditors  all  that  I  have — my 
stocks,  my  jewels,  even  the  Braxton  diamonds." 

The  judge  looked  at  her  fondly.  Was  she  not 
worthy  of  Virginia?  Was  she  not  a  Caperton  and 

244 


THE    BETRAYAL  245 

a  Braxton?  Yes.  And  as  she  stood  proudly  there, 
in  all  the  glory  of  a  Virginian  maiden,  her  eyes 
ablaze,  her  cheeks  aglow,  her  father,  old  man  that 
he  was,  felt  thrilled,  as  does  the  boy  who  listens  to 
the  recital  of  some  tale  of  heroism. 

"  My  child,  as  trustee  I  can  not  permit  you  to 
use  your  property  during  your  minority;  but  this 
morning  I  shall  give  to  you  fifteen  thousand  dollars 
as  an  advancement  on  the  estate  that  you  are  to  in 
herit  from  me;  so  really  you  will  be  using  your  own 
money." 

"  Oh,  thank  you,  father  dear  !  I  am  so  glad,  so 
glad,  so  glad!  And  as  soon  as  I  am  twenty-one  I 
shall  sell  my  bonds,  and  all  that  they  bring  shall  go 
to  the  creditors.  I  am  going  to  give  my  jewels  now. 
May  I,  father  dear?" 

"Yes." 

Still  she  stood  there. 

"What  else,  little  woman?" 

u  Father,  please,  father  dear,  sell  Morven  and 
all  your  other  property  and  give  everything  that  you 
have  to  the  creditors." 

"  Now,  now,  Lelia !  " 

"  Well,  father,  Mr.  Harrison  told  me  last  night 
that  he  would  sell  Inglewood  and  all  his  other  prop 
erty  and  give  every  cent  that  he  has  and  all  that 
he  shall  earn  to  the  creditors — except  just  enough 
to  pay  his  living  expenses." 

She  was  greatly 'excited. 

"  Father,  if  Mr.  Harrison,  a  Readjuster,  is  will 
ing  to  do  that,  surely  every  Debtpayer  should  be  as 
generous." 

For  more  than  a  minute  the  judge  was  silent.  His 
daughter  waited  for  his  answer,  her  arms  around  his 


246  THE    BETRAYAL 

neck.  He  had  expected  her  to  offer  her  small  for 
tune  and  her  jewels  to  the  creditors;  nor  was  her 
request,  even  demand,  that  he  give  all  his  property 
to  Virginia  unexpected;  nor  was  he  unwilling  for  her 
to  give  the  value  of  her  bonds  and  jewels,  for  every 
Virginian  woman,  in  keeping  with  Virginian  custom, 
was  expected  to  make  sacrifices  for  her  country. 
But  the  questions  involved  in  the  surrender  of  the 
property  of  the  gentry  to  the  creditors,  questions 
which  already  had  been  discussed  quietly  among 
gentlemen,  were  important,  and  the  judge  believed 
that  the  debt  should  not  be  paid  in  that  way. 

'"  That  is  important  news,  Lelia,  and  as  important 
as  it  is  unexpected.  John's  course  will  have  far- 
reaching  consequences.  He  is  a  noble  young  man, 
my  dear,  and  this  thing  that  he  has  done  is  worthy 
of  the  Harrisons.  Indeed,  so  sure  am  I  that  John 
Harrison  is  a  man  of  high  character,  I  am  confident 
that  he  will  not  remain  long  in  the  Readjuster  party. 
I  like  the  enthusiasm  of  men  like  John  Harrison. 
Now  he  is  using  his  enthusiasm  wrongly;  but  the 
time  will  come,  and  soon,  when  all  his  splendid 
vitality  and  noble  nature  will  be  given  to  the 
Virginia  that  he  loves — as  you  and  I  love  her." 

Yes,  her  father  knew;  he  understood. 

"  But,  father  dear 

"  Now  run  along,  little  woman ;  I  must  go  to 
town;  and  you — well,  you  know  that  Virginian  girls 
do  not  reason  why  with  their  parents." 

"  I  tell  you,  sir,  he  is  a  puppet — the  puppet  of 
that  infamous  scoundrel,  Timothy  ^lurphy.  An  act 
of  unselfish  patriotism ! — an  example  for  us  to  fol 
low  !  Gary  Dabney,  your  sense  of  humour  is  worthy 


THE    BETRAYAL  247 

of  your  ancestors.  A  brilliant  governor  you  will 
make,  sir;  an  honour  to  this  proud  commonwealth! " 

"Colonel  Daingerfield,  pardon  me,  sir;  but  Vir 
ginians  have  always  loved  Virginia  more  than  they 
have  loved  themselves  !  Surely,  they  love  Virginia 
more  than  they  love  mere  dollars  and  lands !  Let 
us  assume  that  John  Harrison  did  come  to  the  aid 
of  his  country,  instead  of  imputing  low  motives  to 
him;  could  he,  sir,  have  expressed  himself  more 
modestly  than  he  did  in  this  announcement?  Could 
his  language  have  been  more  that  of  a  patriotic 
gentleman  offering  himself  and  his  fortune  to  his 
country?  I  know  John  Harrison;  I  know  that  he  is 
not  General  Murphy's  puppet;  I  know  that  he  is  an 
honourable  man." 

"  Sir,  as  the  puppet  of  Timothy  Murphy  he  would 
have  used  those  same  words.  I  proclaimed  to  the 
world  that  Harrison  is  a  scoundrel — the  scoundrel 
weakling  of  a  scoundrel.  I  did  not  say  that  he  was 
unable  to  use  the  language  of  a  gentleman." 

"  I  bet  my  bottom  dollar  the  colonel's  right,"  Cap 
tain  Lancaster  said.  '  Timothy  Murphy  has 
played  John  Harrison  as  his  right  bower." 

The  Debtpayers  of  Warrenton  had  assembled  in 
the  lobby  of  the  Warren-Green  the  morning  after 
John  Harrison  told  Lelia  Braxton  that  he  would 
give  his  property  and  his  services  to  Virginia. 
Not  an  hour  had  passed  between  the  time  that  he 
left  Morven  and  when  he  posted  on  the  court-house 
door  a  notice  which  said  that  his  real  and  personal 
property  would  be  sold  at  auction  the  next  court-day, 
the  proceeds  of  the  sale  to  be  paid  to  Virginia's 
creditors. 

''Never   mind  his  motive   for   the   time  being," 


248  THE    BETRAYAL 

said  General  Dabney,  "but  let  us  consider  the  po 
litical  effect  of  this  extraordinary  announcement. 
With  brazen  effrontery  the  Readjusters  declare  that 
they  are  the  only  constructive  statesmen  in  this  com 
monwealth,  that  the  honour  of  Virginia  must  be 
saved  through  their  party,  if  at  all,  and  that  ours  is 
a  party  of  mere  words.  We  know  that  they  intend 
to  repudiate  the  public  debt;  but  they  strengthen 
their  position  when  they  move  to  pay  the  debt  by 
a  subscription  to  be  taken  up  among  themselves, 
when  one  of  their  leaders  conspicuously  gives  his 
ancestral  home,  all  his  real  and  personal  property, 
all  his  personal  effects,  all  his  earnings  beyond  barely 
enough  to  buy  bread,  and  goes  forth  among  the 
people  a  poor  man — one  who  has  given  his  property 
to  his  country  and  dedicated  his  life  tc  her." 

"  Harrison's  impertinence,  sirs,  is  not  the  least  of 
his  infamy,"  Colonel  Daingerfield  said.  "  He  as 
serts  in  effect  that  he  is  the  only  man  that  is  willing 
to  give  his  property  and  his  services  to  his  country. 
You  are  right,  Gary  Dabney;  there  has  never  been 
a  time  when  a  Virginian  gentleman  placed  his 
wealth  above  himself,  or  placed  himself  and  his 
wealth  above  his  country.  Is  there  a  man  among  us 
who  would  not  go  forth  naked  into  the  world  that 
Virginia  might  be  spared  a  single  pang?  I  tell  you, 
sirs,  I  resent  the  insinuation,  extravagant  as  it  is, 
that  the  Virginian  gentleman  is  not  first  to  come  to 
the  rescue  of  his  country.  The  puppet  Harrison  has 
done  that  which  no  Virginian  of  intelligence  believes 
to  be  for  the  good  of  the  commonwealth — that,  and 
nothing  more." 

"Which  reminds  me,  Colonel;  this  morning  my 
daughter  Gladys  asked  me  to  invite  every  gentle- 


THE     BETRAYAL  249 

man  of  Fauquier  to  a  meeting  of  the  Ladies'  Aid 
Society,  formed  to  aid  in  the  payment  of  the  debt. 
The  meeting  will  be  held  this  afternoon  at  Miss 
Polly  Boiling's  home." 

'  Then,  sirs,  already  the  fair  daughters  of  Vir 
ginia  have  come  to  their  mother's  rescue." 

'Yes,  Colonel;  my  daughter  Gladys  told  me 
about  the  association  yesterday  afternoon,  before 
John  Harrison  had  posted  his  property." 

"  We  will  resume  the  discussion  of  Murphy's 
trick,"  the  colonel  said.  "Judge  Braxton,  sir,  will 
you  give  us  the  benefit  of  your  views  of  this  con 
spiracy." 

"  Daingerfield,  I  think  that  you  and  Dabney  are 
quite  right  when  you  say  that  every  Virginian  gen 
tleman  feels  a  deep  sense  of  his  personal  responsi 
bility  for  the  payment  of  the  debt.  The  honour  of 
Virginia  has  been  the  bulwark  of  our  civilisation, 
and  has  enabled  us  to  be  intellectually  and  morally 
supreme  among  the  nations  of  the  world.  Does  any 
gentleman  in  this  commonwealth  feel  that  he  has  the 
right  to  enjoy  wealth  and  lands  while  his  creditors 
are  unpaid?  There  is  no  such  man. 

"  But  let  us  assume  that  gentlemen  by  giving  all 
their  property  could  raise  funds  sufficient  to  dis 
charge  the  public  debt.  They  would  be  unwise  to 
sell  their  property  and  lands  to  foreigners  and  to 
Repudiators,  thus  assuring  success  to  Murphy  and 
his  free-booters  in  the  fall  elections.  Immediately 
they  would  repudiate  the  public  debt,  the  price  of 
our  lands  and  personal  property  would  be  distrib 
uted  among  demagogues,  and  Virginia  would  be 
lost.  A  part  of  our  lands  would  be  in  the  posses 
sion  of  foreigners,  the  rest  in  the  possession  of 


250  THE    BETRAYAL 

the  marauders  among  our  peasantry  and  yeomanry. 
We  would  have  sold  our  mother  into  slavery. 

'  This  nation  would  be  at  the  mercy  of  adven 
turers  from  abroad,  and  the  ignorant  among  our 
own  people, — the  ignorant  that  are  now  the  vicious. 
The  gentry  of  Virginia,  denuded  of  their  lands,  their 
personal  property  sold,  themselves  without  resource 
other  than  their  brains  and  their  hands,  would  be 
obliged  to  seek  their  fortunes  in  foreign  countries, 
for  with  thieves  as  their  masters  they  would  be  un 
willing  to  labour.  The  debt  must  be  paid,  but  prop 
erly,  in  a  manner  that  will  serve  the  best  interests  of 
the  commonwealth;  honestly  paid,  but  not  by  the 
delivery  of  Virginia  to  her  enemies." 

General  Dabney  spoke  after  a  long  pause  that 
followed  Judge  Braxton's  remarks. 

"  Although  our  country  has  been  devastated  by 
foreign  armies, — and  by  armies  of  her  own  sons,  in 
an  effort  to  resist  her  invaders, — the  loss  in  prop 
erty  has  been  slight  compared  to  the  loss  that 
she  sustained  in  her  sons  that  were  killed  in  battle. 
Had  the  war  not  been  thrust  upon  us,  the  men  that 
now  lie  in  the  graves  of  heroes  would  be  here  in 
the  prime  of  their  manhood,  fearless,  governing  with 
the  strong  arm  of  hereditary  authority;  but  those 
who  now  would  be  our  aged,  helping  us  by  their 
wise  counsel,  lie  in  the  trenches  that  were  dug  on 
many  a  battlefield.  Our  young  men — who  have 
been  without  a  father's  guidance,  but  who  have 
had  more  than  a  father's  responsibilites — have  not 
had  the  advantages  of  schools." 

"How  do  you  propose  to  pay  the  debt?"  asked 
Captain  Lancaster  of  Colonel  Daingerfield. 

"  I  am  unable  to  see  that  any  plan  is  more  desir- 


THE    BETRAYAL  251 

able  than  the  one  that  is  offered  by  our  worthy 
leader.  As  the  debt  amounts  to  one-tenth  of  the 
value  of  property  as  assessed  for  taxation,  he  pro 
poses  to  pass  a  law  as  soon  as  we  gain  control  of  the 
government  by  which  we  shall  levy  a  tax  equal  to 
one-tenth  of  the  value  of  all  property  in  the  state, 
then  see  to  it  that  the  tax-money  is  collected  within 
one  year.  The  money  derived  from  that  tax,  sirs, 
shall  be  paid  to  the  creditors  as  soon  as  it  comes  into 
our  possession.  In  that  way  the  entire  debt  shall  be 
paid  within  a  year  from  the  day  that  our  party  again 
controls  the  government." 

"  Well,  Gary,"  Captain  Lancaster  said,  "  I  should 
say  that  the  plan  is  one  of  your  own!  And  you 
really  have  one  disciple!  Do  you  mean  to  say  that 
the  Debtpayers,  going  on  the  track  with  such  a 
mount,  hope  to  win  this  race  ?  I'll  bet  my  bottom 
dollar  you  don't  get  one  vote  out  of  a  hundred. 
Now,  as  I  was  saying  to  my  daughter  Gladys  this 
morning,  the  Debtpayers  have  been  on  solid  ground 
—their  track  free  from  mud,  equal  to  a  plank  road. 
They  have  been  talking  in  generalities " 

"And  so  have  the  Repudiators,  for  that  matter, 
Lancaster,"  the  venerable  physician  reminded  him. 

"  So  they  have,  Mr.  Carter.  But  the  Debtpayers 
openly  say  that  they  mean  to  pay  the  debt,  but  don't 
say  how  they  intend  to  pay  it.  Take  my  word  for 
it,  Cary  Dabney;  never  have  a  fixed  plan.  The  best 
of  plans  can  be  picked  to  pieces  by  any  man.  I 
think  I'll  be  your  only  voter — and  if  my  fortune 
amounted  to  ten  dollars  you  wouldn't  get  my 
vote." 

"Always  you  are  jocular  at  the  wrong  time,  Lan 
caster;  and  always  you  are  quite  as  wrong  as  you 


252  THE    BETRAYAL 

are  jocular.  Some  day  you  may  be  right.  If  so,  I 
hope  that  you  will  not  fail  to  send  for  me.  Mr. 
Carter,  sir,  so  much  levity  in  Captain  Lancaster  de 
serves  your  reproof. 

"  Now,  after  forty  years  of  public  service  and 
experience  in  affairs  of  the  state,  I  have  found  that 
in  every  campaign  the  two  parties  that  oppose  each 
other  proceed  in  this  way:  one  has  a  single  plan — 
not  necessarily  developed  in  detail,  but  stating  a  defi 
nite  purpose,  a  single  purpose,  a  purpose  that  all 
that  run  may  read;  the  other  party  has  many 
plans.  You  are  bound  to  like  one,  yet  all  are  vague. 
The  party  that  promises  everything  yet  makes  no 
definite  promise  always  fails.  We  come  straight  out 
and  say  that  the  debt  shall  be  paid — not  how,  nor 
when,  nor  out  of  what  funds,  for  every  man  knows 
that  if  our  party  be  elected  the  debt  will  be  paid, — 
how  is  a  matter  of  statecraft, — but  the  greatest 
dunce " 

Here  the  colonel  paused  to  glare  contemptuously 
over  his  glasses  at  Captain  Lancaster. 

" — But  the  greatest  dunce,  I  repeat,  knows  that 
the  money  that  is  to  pay  the  debt  must  be  contrib 
uted  by  the  people  of  this  country.  Sirs,  that  money 
will  not  fall  from  heaven  like  manna.  Mr.  Dab- 
ney  is  a  man  of  discernment,  a  man  of  great  gen 
eralship,  and  he  does  not  deem  an  explanation  in 
detail  to  the  public  of  matters  of  statecraft  neces 
sary  at  this  time.  His  brilliant  plan  meets  with  my 
full  approval.  We  shall  win  the  election — and  every 
man  when  he  votes  to  pay  the  debt  pledges  his  word 
with  that  vote  that  the  debt  shall  be  paid — by  him 
paid  to  the  extent  of  his  fortune.  And  only  knaves 
shall  protest  when  they  are  called  upon  to  satisfy 


THE     BETRAYAL  253 

their  creditors  by  contributing  so  mean  a  sum  as  one- 
tenth  of  their  property." 

"A  David  come  to  judgment;  aye,  a  David!" 

"  Can  it  be  possible  that  Captain  Lancaster  thinks 
that  he  is  quoting  the  speech  of  Shylock?  Sirs,  can 
that  be  possible?  " 

"Most  unseemly!  Cease,  gentlemen,  cease;  do 
not  treat  matters  of  so  much  importance  as  these 
with  mere  wrangling  and  levity." 

The  silence  that  followed  the  old  physician's  re 
proof  was  interrupted  after  a  while  by  Mr.  Dab- 
ney. 

"  I  think  that  we  should  recognise  John  Harri 
son's  patriotism,  gentlemen,  and  say  to  him  :  Your 
course  has  been  noble — mistaken,  if  you  please,  but 
worthy  of  a  Virginian  that  loves  his  country.  For 
my  part,  while  I  recognise  the  force  of  all  that  you 
gentlemen  have  said,  I  shall  deliver  all  my  property 
to  our  creditors — this  very  day." 

Nor  could  the  protestations  of  several  gentlemen 
shake  Mr.  Dabney  in  his  purpose. 

"  Nevertheless,  sirs,"  said  the  young  leader,  "  I 
owe  forty-seven  million  dollars — and  so  does  every 
Virginian  ;  and  I  shall  not  enjoy  the  comfort  of 
wealth,  nor  spend  a  cent  beyond  a  bare  living,  until 
I  shall  have  discharged  my  debt.  In  this  I  do  not 
mean  to  reprove  you.  My  position  is  yours — in 
theory,  at  least;  but  I  can  not  hold  my  property 
while  my  creditors  are  unpaid " 

Captain  Lancaster  again  interrupted. 

"  '  Lay  on,   Macduff, 

And  damn'd  be  him  that  first  cries,  "  Hold,  enough !  " 

"  O  mighty  Bard  of  Avon,  has  it  come  to  this, 


254  THE    BETRAYAL 

that  you  as  well  as  Virginia  are  degraded! "  Colonel 
Daingerfield  exclaimed,  his  eyes  raised  to  heaven. 

"Where  is  your  property,  Dabney?"  asked  the 
captain.  "  I've  never  heard  that  you  had  any." 

"  Well,  I  have  four  thousand  dollars  in  bank  and 
a  horse  and  buggy.  I  shall  draw  the  money  from 
the  bank  in  a  few  minutes,  and  right  now  I  will 
sell  you  my  horse  and  buggy." 

And  he  did. 

While  the  gentlemen  were  discussing  John  Harri 
son's  announcement  in  the  lobby  of  the  Warren- 
Green,  Captain  Temple  drew  up  his  horse  in  front 
of  Andy  Stover's  shop. 

"What  do  John  Harrison  be  a-meanin'  anyways, 
Cap'n?" 

"How?" 

"Why,  ain'  you  hearn  the  news?" 

"  No;  what  news?  " 

"  My  nevvy,  Gawge  Simpson, — Perfessor  Gawge 
Washin'ton  Laf'ette  Simpson,  out  ter  Laurel  Hill, 
yer  knows, — hev  jes'  gone  by  here  on  his  way  ter 
see  that  thar  ol'es'  Rice  gal,  an'  he  tole  me  as  how 
he  done  read  a  card,  stuck  up  on  th'  co't-house  do', 
as  tole  how  John  Harrison's  a-goin'  ter  sell  out  all 
he's  got,  even  down  ter  Inglewood,  an'  evvything 
thar — pictchews  on  the  wall,  spoons  in  the  sidebo'd, 
even  down  ter  the  horse  in  the  stable." 

"What,  man!     Is  John  Harrison  bankrupt?" 

"  That's  what  Gawge — what  am  ter  say,  Perfes 
sor  Gawge  Washin'ton  Laf'ette  Simpson,  out  ter 
Laurel  Hill — war  a-thinkin',  so  he  axed  'bout  it,  an' 
read  closter — an'  Lawd,  what  yer  'sposin',  Cap'n?" 

"  Speak  out,  man!     Speak  out!  " 


THE    BETRAYAL  255 

"He's  a-goin'  ter  sell  out  evvything  as  is  hisn  an' 
gin  it  ter  the  state  ter  pay  her  debts  wid." 

"That's  a  lie!" 

"Naw,  Cap'n,  'tain't — it's  the  truth;  an'  he  done 
say  as  how  he  'spec's  evvy  honest  man  in  the  state 
ter  do  the  same  as  him." 

"He  is  a  damned  fool!" 

"That's  jest  what  I  says." 

Temple  stuck  his  spurs  deep  into  his  horse's 
flanks  and  rode  furiously  toward  Warrenton.  His 
thoughts  kept  pace  with  his  steed. 

"  Ha,  ha,  Lelia  Braxton !  I  see  your  finger  in  this 
pie !  And  what  a  fool !  The  place  will  not  bring 
half  its  value.  Inglewood  is  mine.  Let  me  see, 
Temple's  soliloquy:  Harrison,  a  member  of  the 
legislature;  Temple,  governor  of  Virginia,  later 
president  of  the  United  States;  Harrison,  in  a  War 
renton  boarding-house;  Temple,  the  owner  of  the 
fine  old  Harrison  estate,  with  winter  residence  the 
Governor's  Mansion,  Richmond,  later  with  winter 
residence  the  White  House,  Washington.  Come, 
come,  Lelia  dear;  you  are  young  now,  but  with  the 
wisdom  of  a  few  more  years — I  think  I  may  predict 
the  name  that  you  will  bear." 

Then  he  thought  of  Dorothea  Annabel,  as  he 
always  did  when  he  thought  of  Miss  Braxton. 

"The  Temple  star  is  rising.  And  what  a  polit 
ical  stroke !  A  Readjuster  leads  the  way  to  an  hon 
est  settlement  of  the  debt.  How  Tim  Murphy's 
eyes  will  glisten  when  he  hears  the  news !  The  elec 
tion  is  ours." 

He  began  to  think  of  the  details  of  the  Inglewood 
estate — the  great  brick  house  set  far  back  from  the 
street,  in  a  grove  of  old  oaks,  the  elegant  colonial 


256  THE    BETRAYAL 

furniture,  the  magnificent  silver,  the  priceless  por 
traits  by  Van  Dyke,  Reynolds,  Stuart,  and  others — • 
all  these  would  be  his,  purchased  at  less  than  half 
their  value. 

'  There  never  was  a  girl  that  money  and  position 
and  a  fine  old  family  estate  could  not  buy — and  love 
goes  with  the  purchase,  the  only  kind  of  love  that 
a  woman  knows.  Women  have  always  loved  their 
captors.  Did  not  the  proud  Roman  maid  joyously 
mate  with  her  barbarian  conqueror?  Yes,  Lelia, 
you  will  love  me  when  all  these  things  come  to  pass. 
Oh,  Dolly,  Dolly,  my  pretty  little  Dorothea  Anna 
bel  !  Your  heart  is  mine  already.  .  .  And  she  is 
a  wondrous  jewel." 

His  mood  changed.  Again  he  wondered  why 
Harrison  had  determined  to  sell  his  place.  Doubt 
less  Andy's  version  was  not  the  true  one.  Harrison 
was  not  a  gambler;  he  had  no  extravagant  habits; 
he  lived  well  within  his  means.  Temple  was  unable 
to  solve  the  problem. 

"  Possibly  Harrison  is  tired  of  social  ostracism. 
Well,  so  am  I — but  I  am  a  man,  and  can  bide  my 
day." 

But  why  should  John  Harrison  sell  Inglewood 
and  his  other  large  properties?  Not  for  his  coun 
try's  sake?  No;  neither  John  Harrison  nor  any 
other  man  would  sell  the  lands  of  his  fathers 
through  sheer  patriotism.  He  recalled  how  Mr. 
Roger  Williams  Stokes  had  said  only  yesterday, 
while  Temple  was  awaiting  the  appearance  of  Miss 
Dorothea  Annabel  Rice:  "All  this  her-r-re  talk 
'bout  honour-r-r  is  tommyr-r-rot.  Who  ever-r-r 
hear-r-rn  of  a  body's  payin'  of  a  debt  ef  he  didn't 
hev  to.  People  hadn't  oughter-r-r  talk  sich  non- 


THE    BETRAYAL  257 

sense."  No,  not  patriotism,  but  possibly  this: 
Lelia  Braxton  had  told  John  Harrison  that  she 
would  never  marry  him,  and  John  Harrison  had 
known  that  she  never  would. 

Then  he  thought  of  Murphy.  "He  will  ask  me 
why  I  did  not  let  a  Debtpayer  buy  Inglewood — why 
I  destroyed  all  the  political  value  of  Harrison's 
great  political  stroke."  And  he  thought,  and  again 
he  thought.  "Why?" 

Temple  had  not  ridden  out  of  sight  before  Mr. 
Rice  drew  up  in  front  of  the  smith's  shop.  The  news 
surprised  Mr.  Rice  beyond  measure.  While  he  did 
not  believe  that  Harrison  would  give  one  cent  to 
the  creditors,  he  did  fear  that  his  own  political  for 
tunes  in  some  way  would  be  affected,  that  Harri 
son  and  Murphy  had  conspired  to  ruin  him. 

Then  he  saw  that  Mr.  Stover  had  something  else 
on  his  mind.  Several  times  the  smith  had  started  to 
unburden,  he  saw;  but  also  he  saw  that  the  news 
would  not  be  pleasant,  so  he  had  not  encouraged 
Stover  to  unload. 

"I'll  be  a-goin'  now,  Andy;  an'  you  keep  on 
a-doin'.  Lay  hold  on  every  vote  as  comes  down  this 
here  road.  Well,  good-bye !  " 

"  Hold  on  a  minute,  Mr.  Rice,  I  hev  a  word  ter 
say  ter  yer.  I  sho  hev  done  a  lot  fer  yer,  I  has. 
I's  done  got  evvy  vote  as  come  down  this  here  road, 
I  has ;  an'  evvy  man  says,  *  All  right,  Andy,  I'll  vote 
fer  Mr.  Rice.'  " 

"I'm  much  obliged  to  you,  Andy;  I  certainly  is." 

"  Hold  on  a  minute,  Mr.  Rice.  I  air  in  trouble, 
I  air,  an'  I  ax  yo'  he'p.  This  here  shop's  all  I's 
got,  takin'  wid  that  li'l'  house  as  me  an'  my  owns 


258  THE    BETRAYAL 

lives  in ;  an'  this  here  shop  an'  that  thar  house  they's 
goin'  ter  be  tuk  from  me  comin'  ter-morrow  ef  I 
ain't  ris'  the  mortgage  money.  I  wants  eight  hun 
dred  dollar,  I  do,  an'  I  wants  yer  ter  len'  me  the 
money,  I  do." 

"  I  ain't  a-goin'  to  do  no  sech  thing.  Your  prop 
erty  ain't  worth  more'n  five  hundred  dollar,  all 
knows,  an'  if  I  lent  you  eight  hundred  dollar  I'd 
lose  three  hundred  dollar  cold;  an'  I  ain't  a-goin' 
to  lose  no  cent  on  you,  Andy.  You've  done  spent 
your  substance  in  riotous  livin',  you  has,  for  all  your 
Meth'dist  piety.  I  don't  think  nothin'  of  the  Meth'- 
dist  religion  nohow.  You  Meth'dists  shouts  mighty 
hard,  but  that's  because  you  gets  het  up  with  liquor; 
an'  then  you  come  around  to  me  an'  says  to  give 
you  some  of  my  ile,  like  the  foolish  said  to  the  wise. 
I  say  to  you  right  up  an'  down,  I  ain't  got  no  ile  to 
lend  you.  Good-bye,  Andy;  keep  your  eyes  cut  for 
every  voter  as  comes  down  this  here  road;  an'  you 
let  rum  alone." 

Mr.  Stover  wept.     Loud  were  his  lamentations. 

"  Them's  crocodile  tears,  them  is.  You  stop 
drinkin'  so  much  rum  an'  your  eyes'll  stop  runnin' 
so  much  water." 

Mr.  Rice  was  Mr.  Rice's  only  vice. 

He  drove  off,  leaving  Mr.  Stover  in  despair,  for 
that  poor  man  thought  that  he  had  exhausted  his 
last  resource.  He  and  his  owns  would  be  put  out 
into  the  public  highway  the  following  day,  he  clearly 
foresaw. 

As  Colonel  Daingerfield  drove  toward  his  home 
after  the  discussion  of  events  political  at  the  Warren- 
Green,  two  sons  of  his  former  overseer,  dressed  in 


THE    BETRAYAL  259 

attire  that  they  thought  elegant,  insultingly  drove 
by,  turned  in  their  seats,  looked  back  at  him,  and 
smirked  into  his  face  without  bowing  or  speaking. 

"Halt!" 

The  young  men  drew  up  their  horse. 

"  You  impertinent  young  dogs !  Get  out  of  that 
buggy;  pull  those  flaming  rags  off  your  bodies; 
throw  those  cigarettes  away;  put  on  your  working 
clothes,  and  then  go  into  my  fields.  I  shall  intro 
duce  a  bill  into  the  next  legislature  that  shall  pro 
vide  for  a  revival  of  the  whipping-post.  Then, 
if  your  conduct  be  repeated,  I  shall  have  you 
publicly  chastised." 

"  Ha,  ha,  ha !  You'd  better  set-to  and  work 
your  own  fields,  'stead  of  working  your  mouth  so 
much,  old  gander !  " 

That  from  one  of  the  young  men.  The  other 
laughed  boisterously  as  he  yelled  at  the  top  of  his 
voice: 

"Here,  et  my  dust!  " 

The  red  in  the  colonel's  face  grew  a  few  shades 
deeper.  He  was  angry,  without  doubt,  very  angry. 
He  was  about  to  try  to  overtake  them  when  Mr. 
Stover  drew  up  his  "  critter,"  and  spoke  to  him  re 
spectfully. 

"  Gunnel,  suh,  I  air  in  a  heap  o'  trouble,  I  air." 

"  I  am  not  in  the  least  surprised.  A  religious  man 
like  you,  Andy,  who  is  seen  drunk  two  or  three  times 
a  week,  and  who  associates  with  Repudiators,  is 
likely  to  be  in  trouble.  But  what  is  the  mat 
ter?" 

Andy  poured  forth  his  tale  of  woe. 

"  But  the  property  is  not  worth  more  than  four 
hundred  dollars." 


260  THE    BETRAYAL 

"Jim  Rice,  suh,  says  as  how  it's  wuth  all  o'  five 
hundred  dollar." 

"  Even  so,  I  would  lose  three  hundred  dollars." 

Mr.  Stover  wept. 

"Stop  that  crying! — a  great  hulking  creature  like 
you  weeping  like  some  woman  !  Stop  !  " 

"  Gawd  hev  quit  takin'  care  o'  his  own." 

"  If  you  had  served  the  Lord  half  so  faithfully 
as  you  have  served  the  devil  you  would  not  be 
brought  to  this  pass.  You  come  to  see  me  at  two 
o'clock,  when  you  shall  have  the  eight  hundred 
dollars;  but  if  I  hear  of  one  dollar  of  it  going  down 
your  throat  I  shall  have  you  sold  out.  Then  I  shall 
have  you  and  your  people  put  into  the  poorhouse." 

"Thankee,  suh;  thankee  kindly,  suh  I  I  allus 
knowed  you  wus  a  big-hearted  man !  " 

Colonel  Daingerfield  drove  back  to  town  to  get 
the  eight  hundred  dollars.  Virginia  needed  the 
money,  but  a  Virginian  peasant  was  in  trouble;  and 
Colonel  Daingerfield  needed  the  money,  for  only  a 
few  labourers  had  worked  in  his  fields  for  several 
years  past,  and  the  colonel  was  not  a  man  of 
means. 

"An'  he  never  axed  me  ter  vote  fer  him  an'  git 
him  votes.  An'  thar  air  Jim  Rice,  damn  him — oh, 
Gawd,  I  never  meant  ter  say  that  thar  word  agin  !— 
an'  thar  air  Jim  Rice  as  says  as  how  I  ain1  goin' 
ter  git  a  dollar  o'  his  money — I  might  starve  first, 
an'  put  my  owns  in  the  road.  But  I  got  ter  vote 
fer  the  upliftin'  o'  my  owns,  I  has.  I  don't  believe 
in  nobody  settin'  hisse'f  up  ter  be  better'n  annudder, 
I  don't.  I'll  git  even  wid  Jim  Rice  summers — ef  I 
does  vote  fur  him.  The  cunnel  never  axed  fer  my 
vote,  an'  he  don't  git  it." 


THE    BETRAYAL  261 

When  Temple  reached  his  office  he  found  it  occu 
pied  by  the  Reverend  Doctor  Shadrach  Meshech 
Abednego  Berkeley.  The  "  statement "  was  seated 
in  the  arm-chair,  his  feet  on  the  top  of  the  desk, 
calmly  and  patiently  waiting  for  his  political  guide; 
and  while  he  waited  he  read  the  Whig,  the  words  of 
which  he  carefully  spelled  aloud,  repeating  sev 
eral  rimes  those  that  contained  more  than  three  syl 
lables. 

"Well,  Dr.  Berkeley,  what  is  this  that  I  hear 
about  our  friend  Harrison?" 

"  Hit  am  creatin'  no  end  ob  commerce,  Mistah 
Temple,  an'  mah  whole  volubility  am  stirred  by  de 
consequence  ob  sech  a  promotional  move — 'specially 
when  de  move's  by  er  subsequential  member  ob  mah 
party." 

Although  he  struggled  to  maintain  his  dignity  and 
was  visibly  disturbed,  the  reverend  gentleman  did 
not  neglect  his  diction. 

"  Mr.  Harrison's  strange  course  may  well  cause 
us  to  think,  my  dear  Doctor." 

"  What  do  hit  mean  ?  When  I  'sumed  de 
'sponsibility  of  de  Readjuster  party  on  ter  my  shoul 
ders  as  de  leader  ob  mah  people  cryin'  in  de  wilder 
ness  ob  confusion,  Mistah  Temple,  I  don'  hit  wid 
de  suspicious  detention  of  doin'  mah  duty.  But  now 
dat  de  party  have  arriv  at  de  susplcional  fork  in  de 
road  ob  judiciary  politics,  suh,  I  ain'  sure  which  fork 
hit's  'bout  ter  tek.  Am  de  Readjusters  'sposin'  ter 
follow  dis  hyah  promotivement  ob  Harrison's?" 

The  humour  of  the  situation  appealed  to  the  cap 
tain.  He  could  not  refrain  from  amusing  himself 
at  the  expense  of  his  ally. 

"  Why,  of  course,  Dr.  Berkeley.     I  am  going  to 


262  THE     BETRAYAL 

sell  all  that  I  have,  and  you  are  going  to  sell  your 
house  and  lot  and  your  horse  and  buggy.  The  pro 
ceeds  will  be  paid  to  our  creditors." 

At  this  point  the  diction  of  the  rhetorical  expert 
suffered  a  relapse.  Indeed,  the  learned  doctor  even 
forgot  his  dictionary. 

"Good  Gawd  A'mighty,  Mistah  Temple!  Sell 
mah  house  an'  mah  lot  an'  mah  hoss  an'  mah  buggy? 
Sholy  you  fo'gits  how  me  an'  Melindy  done  wuk 
fo'  dat  house  an'  lot  an'  dat  hoss  an'  buggy?" 

"  General  Murphy  has  ordered  the  sale,  my  dear 
sir;  so  we  must  pay  the  debt — by  readjustment,  you 
know.  That  is,  we  must  pay  it  privately  like  gentle 
men.  We  must  answer  the  call  to  duty." 

"  'Tain'  gwine  call  me  from  dat  house  an'  lot  an' 
dat  hawse  an'  buggy,  I  ken  jes'  tell  you.  Fs  done 
drive  that  hawse  and  buggy  all  ober  Fauquier,  ter 
ebery  meetin'-house  'roun',  an'  I  ain'  gwine  part  wid 
dat  hawse  and  buggy  an'  dat  house  an'  lot.  De 
Readjusters  ken  go  ter  hell!  Now  yo'  hyahs  me!  " 

"  But  you  are  the  leader  of  your  people,  Dr. 
Berkeley.  Your  attitude  is  neither  dignified  nor  be 
coming." 

"  De  leadership  ob  mah  people  ken  be  handed 
ter  some  udder  pusson.  Dyah's  er  passel  ob  niggers 
what  ain'  got  no  house  an'  lot  ter  part  wid  an'  what 
ain'  got  no  hawse  and  buggy  ter  drive  'roun'.  Fs 
gwine  stick  by  mah  prop'ty,  I  is,  party  or  no  party." 

"  But  General  Murphy  has  promised  equality  to 
your  people  as  the  reward  of  faithfulness." 

As  the  reverend  doctor  ardently  longed  for  equal 
ity,  he  was  silent  a  moment. 

"  Melindy,  she  don'  set  no  sto'  by  'quality.  She 
say  ef  Gawd  A'mighty  'tended  niggers  ter  be  good 


THE    BETRAYAL  263 

as  white  folks,  He'd  a-made  'em  white.  Melindy 
she  ain'  got  no  ambition.  She'd  jes'  natchelly  kill 
me  fo'  cr  fool  ef  I  say  I's  gwine  part  wid  mah  house 
an'  lot  an'  mah  hawse  an'  buggy.  Gen'l  Murphy  ain' 
gwine  ter  git  nary  er  cent  outen  me — nary  er  cent, 
'quality  or  no  'quality." 

"Now,  now,  Dr.  Berkeley;  I  was  just  joking 
with  you.  Of  course  we  are  not  going  to  sell  our 
property.  The  Readjuster  movement  is  to  protect 
us — to  reduce  our  taxation.  There  are  men  like 
John  Harrison  in  every  party,  who  do  things  that 
are  unexpected  and  unnecessary.  Mr.  Harrison  him 
self  is  not  a  party  necessity." 

"  Hi,  Mistah  Temple,  am  dat  de  way  you  show 
yo'  'preciality  ob  dem  dat  pretempts  ter  desuscitate 
de  party,  dat  am  ter  ax  you  ter  be  gov'nor  an'  den 
pres'dent?" 

"All  politicians  love  a  joke,  Dr.  Berkeley.  Jocu 
larity  is  one  of  the  elements  of  a  statesman." 

"  Den  I  'scuse  you,  Mistah  Temple,  'cause  er 
statement  am  de  gran'est  ob  all  de  microbes  on  dis 
hyah  celestial  earth — 'ceptin'  de  minister  of  de 
Gospel,  sech  as  me." 

Whereupon  Shadrach,  perfectly  satisfied,  pom 
pously  departed. 

When  Mr.  Carter,  the  first  gentleman  to  reach 
the  old  Boiling  home,  was  announced  to  the  mem 
bers  of  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society,  already  the  ladies 
assembled  in  the  drawing-room  had  effected  an  or 
ganisation.  Miss  Polly  Boiling  had  been  unani 
mously  elected  president,  and  had  found  official  po 
sitions  for  every  member  of  the  association.  There 
was  the  committee  on  counties,  which  was  to  organ- 


264          THE  BETRAYAL; 

ise  a  branch  of  the  society  in  every  county  in  the 
commonwealth.  Mrs.  Braxton  was  elected  chairman 
of  that  committee,  without  a  dissenting  voice,  hav 
ing  been  nominated  by  Miss  Gladys  Lancaster — be 
cause  "  Mrs.  Braxton's  old  enough  to  know  a  thing 
or  two."  There  was  the  committee  on  donations. 
Mrs.  Daingerfield  was  nominated  as  chairman  of 
that  committee  by  Miss  Lancaster,  and  unani 
mously  elected — because  "  Mrs.  Daingerfield  knows 
a  good  thing  when  she  sees  it."  Miss  Lancaster,  hav 
ing  proposed  a  committee  on  personal  solicitation, 
nominated  herself  as  chairman  of  that  committee, 
saying  that  she  could  squeeze  blood  out  of  a  turnip, 
and  was  elected  by  a  silent  vote,  no  one  voting  for 
or  against  the  formation  of  the  committee,  and  no 
one  voting  for  or  against  Miss  Lancaster  as  the 
chairman.  The  membership  was  restricted  to  that 
young  lady  hers-elf,  for  she  was  unable  to  find  any 
other  person  that  was  willing  to  admit  that  she  was 
qualified  to  make  an  effective  member.  On  motion 
made  by  Miss  Lancaster,  duly  seconded  by  Miss 
Dabney,  the  decision  was  reached  to  hold  a  bazaar 
in  the  court-house  the  last  Tuesday  in  August,  hours 
eleven  in  the  morning  to  twelve  at  night.  Mrs. 
Braxton  was  elected  chairman  of  the  committee  on 
the  bazaar  by  the  voice  of  those  assembled,  having 
been  nominated  by  Miss  Lancaster,  who  said  that 
"  Mrs.  Braxton  knows  enough  not  to  let  people  put 
off  any  old  thing  on  her" — meaning  articles  to  be 
sold. 

Mr.  Carter's  name  had  been  announced  only  a 
few  minutes  when  other  gentlemen  arrived.  Soon 
the  drawing-rooms  were  filled  with  the  Fauquier 
aristocracy. 


THE    BETRAYAL  265 

When  presented  Mr.  Carter  bowed  low  over  the 
hand  of  Miss  Boiling,  which  he  kissed  after  the 
manner  of  the  gentlemen  of  his  period,  then  quoted 
his  favourite  author. 

"  '  Dianam    tenerae    dicite    virgines; 
Intonsum,   pueri,   dicite   Cynthium; 

Latonamque   supremo 
Dilectam  penitus  lovi.'  " 

"  How  very  appropriate,  Mr.  Carter." 

"  Mistress  Boiling,  the  odes  of  Horace  are  always 
appropriate.  Here,  madam,  he  sings  of  Latona  and 
her  children;  but  his  words  are  also  appropriate  to 
Virginia  and  her  offspring." 

Judge  Braxton  had  heard  Mr.  Carter  recite  the 
four  lines  from  Horace.  He  took  the  twinkle  in 
the  aged  physician's  eyes  as  a  challenge,  which  he 
accepted. 

"The  Latin  poet  did  his  best,  Miss  Boiling,  and 
we  honour  him;  but  we  turn  to  Homer  for  a  more 
poetical  description  of  these  beautiful  surroundings, 
as  you  shall  see,  if  you  will  bear  with  me  for  a 
moment  — 


*/}?  Tore  fjt>ev  Trpoirav  r}/J>ap  €5  r)e\iov 
Salvvvr*,  ovSe  n  $17x05  eSevero  Batrbs 
ov  f4€V  (fropfjuyyos  7rept,tca\\€O$,  rjv  e^' 
Movadcov  $',  at  aeiBov  a^i^o^evai  orrl  tca\f). 


Madam,  Horace  is  undone.  I  could  repeat  verse 
after  verse  of  the  Iliad,  and  thereby  show  you  that 
Homer  was  Horace's  master,  even  as  he  was  and  is 
the  master  of  all  other  singers,  I  -  " 

Fortunately  Captain  Lancaster  came  to  Miss  Boi 
ling's  relief. 


266  THE    BETRAYAL 

"  Miss  Bollin',  ma'am,  Judge  Braxton  deserts  his 
own  tongue  for  a  barbarous  lingo.  So  does  Mr. 
Carter.  Colonel  Daingerfield,  I  am  glad  to  say,  is 
more  faithful,  for  he  repeats  the  songs  of  the  Bard 
of  Avon,  Bailey,  Landor,  Poe,  and  Lanier;  and  I, 
ma'am,  uphold  the  traditions  of  Virginian  gentle 
men,  for  my  favourite  poem  is  one  that  all  true  sons 
of  Virginia  have  repeated — 

"  '  Thanks !  '  said  the  Judge ;  '  a  sweeter  draught 
From  a  fairer  hand  was  never  quaffed.'  " 

In  those  two  lines  is  summed  up  all  the  beauties  of 
poesy,  in  my  humble  opinion.  Miss  Bollin',  ma'am, 
you  should  have  offered  me  a  glass  of  water." 

The  venerable  physician  paused,  then  stood  to  his 
full  six  feet. 

"  Ladies, — my  children, — all  praise  to  the  noble 
women  of  Virginia.  Ever  have  they  been  first  to 
her  rescue;  ever  have  they  been  ready  to  lay  down 
their  lives  for  her,  even  as  the  sons  of  our  beloved 
country  have  laid  down  their  lives." 

Colonel  Daingerfield  came  forward. 

"  Madam,  I  deeply  regret  that  you  ladies  did  not 
wait  for  the  gentlemen  before  you  organised  your 
selves  into  this  association.  I  fear,  ma'am,  that  you 
have  made  some  grievous  mistakes.  Ladies  are  not 
skilled  in  such  matters.  You  should  have  had  the 
benefit  of  my  advice." 

"Why,  Colonel  Daingerfield,"  said  Miss  Lan 
caster,  "I  think  you  are  just  horrid!  The  idea! 
Women  are  just  as  smart  as  they're  pretty.  Now 
don't  you  mind  what  he  says,  dear  Miss  Boiling, 
I'm  sure  you've  done  just  splendid.  Oh,  there's 
Dick  Taliaferro!  Wait  a  minute,  Dick!  Wait  a 
minute!  " 


THE    BETRAYAL  267 

/ 

"An  animated  young  lady,  ma'am." 

"  Unlike  the  girls  of  my  time,  Mr.  Daingerfield," 
Miss  Boiling  said. 

"Of  your  time,  ma'am!  But  yesterday,  and  you 
and  John  Harrison  stood  'neath  yonder  chandelier. 
Mistletoe,  the  flower  of  Christmas,  hung  from  its 
sparkling  glass  trimmings;  a  spray  of  mistletoe  was 
fastened  in  your  chestnut  hair;  your  cheeks  were  lit 
by  the  fires  of  your  glorious  eyes.  But  he  would  have 
been  a  brave  man,  ma'am,  had  he  claimed  the  rights 
that  you  dared  him  take.  And  a  brave  young  man 
was  John  Harrison.  But  he  was  not  so  brave  as 
to  pick  up  the  gauntlet  that  you  threw  down." 

"Oh,  prithee,  Mr.  Daingerfield!  will  you  never 
forsake  your  youth?" 

"  Never,  ma'am — so  long  as  the  bloom  of  your 
cheeks  puts  to  shame  the  colour  that  mantles  the  face 
of  the  new-blown  rose." 

"  Daingerfield,"  said  Judge  Braxton,  "  did  I  hear 
you  mention  the  name  of  John  Harrison?" 

"Yes,  sir,  you  did;  John  Harrison,  the  friend  of 
our  youth — the  father,  sir,  of  the  poor  young  man 
that  Murphy  has  misled." 

"Uncle  Daingerfield,"  Miss  Braxton  said,  "I 
wish  General  Murphy  would  mislead  other  young 
men.  I  wish  he  would  mislead  you  into  selling 
Bannockburn  and  all  your  other  property." 

"  Daughter,  your  uncle  is  no  longer  a  young  man." 

"  And  it  is  well  that  all  Virginian  men  are  not 
young,  Ingram,"  said  Mr.  Carter,  smiling  signifi 
cantly. 

The  gentlemen,  with  few  exceptions,  denounced 
Murphy's  political  trick  pointedly,  though  in  guarded 


268  THE    BETRAYAL 

words.  The  ladies,  without  exception,  made  a  hero 
of  the  young  man,  and  Miss  Boiling,  defending  him 
warmly,  did  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  Readjusters, 
in  John  Harrison,  had  set  the  Debtpayers  an  ex 
ample  that  they  should  follow.  Her  tall  figure,  not 
yet  stooped  by  seventy  years,  was  more  erect  than 
usual,  and  her  eyes  had  all  the  fire  that  was  theirs 
half  a  century  before. 

But  John  Harrison's  father  had  looked  into  other 
eyes  than  Miss  Boiling's.  He  had  looked  into  soft 
blue  eyes,  that  did  not  sparkle.  He  had  not  seen 
Miss  Boiling's  eyes.  And  Miss  Boiling  was  M'iss 
Boiling  yet. 

"  Lelia,  I  do  believe  that  Tom  Tazewell  is  in  love 
with  Miss  Boiling.     Just  see  how  he  looks  at  her." 
"You  should  know,  Betty." 

"  Mr.  Taliaferro,  did  you  bring  your  cheque-book 
with  you?" 

"Why,  yes,  Miss  Lancaster." 
4  Then  please  write  me  out  a  big  cheque — a  great 
big  juicy  cheque.  Oh,  Miss  Polly,  Mr.  Taliaferro 
is  writing  out  such  a  big  cheque!  But  you  are  our 
president,  Miss  Polly,  so  you  must  head  the  sub 
scription  list.  The  committee  on  personal  solicita 
tion  expects  every  man  to  do  his  duty." 

"Certainly,  I  shall  start  the  list,  certainly;  I  enter 
my  name  for  one  thousand  dollars." 

"Oh,  oh!  If  you  didn't  look  so  solemn  I'd  give 
you  a  kiss!  Voila,  Mr.  President;  a  check  for  five 
thousand  dollars.  But  then  you're  the  richest  man 
in  the  state,  Mr.  Taliaferro." 

"  Lelia,  that  was  your  contribution.     I  wish  some 


THE     BETRAYAL  269 

young  man  loved  me  well  enough  to  give  five  thou 
sand  dollars  to  our  society." 

"  Hush,  Betty,  you  will  be  overheard.  Besides, 
Mr.  Dandridge  would  give  his  life  for  you." 

"  Well,  well,  well  1  Surely  somebody  else  is  going 
to  give  something!  Walk  up,  ladies  and  gentlemen 
— you  all  know  how  to  write !  " 

Miss  Betty  Dabney  unfastened  a  handsome  pin, 
a  cameo  surrounded  by  pearls,  which  had  belonged 
to  one  of  her  Gordon  grandmothers,  and  handed  it 
to  Miss  Boiling.  Miss  Clarke  and  her  five  nieces 
walked  forward,  one  after  another,  and  laid  on  the 
marble-top  table,  behind  which  the  president  was 
seated,  all  the  jewels  that  they  wore.  Their  ex 
ample  was  followed  by  all  the  other  ladies  except 
Miss  Braxton  and  Miss  Lancaster.  Unobserved, 
Miss  Braxton  had  slipped  her  jewel  box  on  the 
table  and  had  handed  a  sealed  envelope  to  the 
presiding  officer.  Miss  Lancaster  had  given  noth 
ing. 

Each  praised  the  others  for  their  generosity,  and 
asked  one  another  what  they  had  given. 

"What  did  you  give,  Miss  Lancaster?"  asked 
Miss  Boiling,  who  usually  addressed  the  committee 
on  personal  solicitation  as  Gladys;  but  this  evening 
—no,  she  could  not  bring  herself  to  say  Gladys  this 
evening. 

"My  family  jewellery  is  at  home,  Miss  Boiling; 
but  I  shall  contribute  my  widow's  mite.  This  dear 
little  ring  was  given  to  me  by  my  first  sweetheart— 
affaire  de  cceur — now,  Mr.  Taliaferro,  you  needn't 
look  so  solemn — poor  boy!  He's  married  now;  but 
I've  always  had  some  sentiment  about  this  dear  little 


270  THE    BETRAYAL 

garnet  ring — tout  ou  rien!  Here,  take  it,  Miss 
Boiling." 

The  silence  was  oppressive.  Mjss  Boiling  took 
the  ring.  She  knew  that  Miss  Lancaster  was  not 
making  a  sacrifice  quite  so  great  as  the  young  lady's 
words  implied.  She  had  seen  the  large  horseshoe 
pin  of  magnificent  diamonds  that  Miss  Lancaster 
had  neglected  to  take  from  beneath  her  dimpled 
chin.  One  is  likely  to  forget  an  ornament  that  is 
out  of  sight. 

"  Come,  step  right  up,  gentlemen,"  Miss  Lan 
caster  continued;  "walk  to  the  captain's  office  and 
settle  there.  For  shame,  for  shame ! — is  Mr.  Talia- 
ferro  to  be  the  only  horse  to  run  in  this  race?" 

Young  Tazewell  came  to  the  defence  of  the  gen 
tlemen. 

"The  ladies  first,  Miss  Gladys." 

"Amende  honorable;  but  women  have  nothing  to 
give.  Come,  Tom,  I  haven't  seen  your  handwriting 
for  a  month  of  Sundays." 

Mr.  Tazewell  put  his  name  down  for  ten  dollars, 
the  nine  Beverleys'  names  followed,  and  every  other 
gentleman,  except  Mr.  Dabney,  entered  his  name 
for  the  same  amount. 

"  I've  always  heard  that  men  follow  one  another 
like  sheep.  Ten  dollars  ! — ten  dollars  ! — a  miserable 
little  ten !  And  not  a  lady  here  who  didn't  give 
many  times  ten  dollars'  worth  of  jewellery!  Why, 
Gary  Gordon  Dabney,  you  haven't  put  your  name 
down !  You  walk  right  up  here,  sir,  this  very  min 
ute!" 

Whereupon  Mr.  Dabney  handed  Miss  Boiling  a 
check  for  four  thousand  dollars,  and  counted  out 
upon  the  marble-top  table  thirty  pieces  of  gold. 


THE     BETRAYAL  271 

"  Four  thousand  dollars — two  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars — why,  you  dear  old  bear !  Popper,  popper ! 
— where  are  you,  popper?  Popper  left  after  he  paid 
his  ten  dollars — thought  I  was  going  to  nail  him 
for  ten  more.  I'm  going  to  look  for  him." 

"  Gladys,  your  delight  seems  to  be  genuine — • 
which  surprises  me.  My  brilliant  young  daughter 
has  no  place  in  her  heart  for  Gary  Dabney,  I  see. 
Why,  my  dear  child,  he  has  given  everything  he  has 
on  earth — four  thousand  dollars  he  had  in  bank,  and 
his  horse  and  buggy,  which  are  now  in  the  Warren- 
Green  stables.  I  shall  sell  the  horse  for  fully  two 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  and  expect  to  get  one 
hundred  dollars  for  the  buggy.  My  clear  profit  will 
be  one  hundred  dollars." 

For  once  Miss  Lancaster  was  quiet- — very  quiet. 
But  her  father  could  hear  her  think.  After  a  while 
she  spoke. 

"  I'm  going  right  away  and  ask  Miss  Boiling  to 
give  that  poor  dear  boy's  money  back  to  him.  I 
think  it's  a  shame  to  rob  young  men  that  way.  Now 
ten  dollars,  that's  all  right;  but — why  it's  just  out 
of  the  question !  " 

"  Evidently  you  know  very  little  about  Gary  Dab 
ney.  You  would  make  a  scene  for  nothing.  Seems 
to  me  you've  had  enough  to  do  with  this  business 
already;  so  you  be  quiet  for  the  rest  of  the  evening. 
There  are  several  ladies  here  besides  you.  As  I  told 
your  mother,  I'd  rather  raise  five  boys  than  one  girl; 
but  I've  had  to  fetch  up  five  girls  and  three  boys." 

"A  generous  gift — a  very  generous  gift,  Gary; 
worthy  of  the  Carys  and  the  Gordons  and  the  Dab- 
neys." 


272  THE     BETRAYAL 

"  I  thank  you,  Miss  Boiling." 

Ah,  me !  then  was  the  period  when  the  Virginian 
did  not  say,  "I  thank  you  very  much;"  then  his 
northern  friends  did  not  say,  "  Tha-an-nk  y-o-u," 
nor  did  his  eastern  neighbours  say,  "  Thanks." 

A  group  of  gentlemen  discussed  Dabney's  gift. 

"  I  never  tried  to  dissuade  my  son.  I  would  do 
the  same  were  I  a  boy." 

"  And,  General,"  said  Judge  Braxton,  "  I  shall 
say  for  the  benefit  of  these  young  men  about  us — 
no  young  man  makes  a  mistake  when  he  gives  all 
that  he  has  to  his  country.  Harrison  and  your  son 
have  set  an  example  in  patriotism  that  is  not  amiss 
in  these  perilous  days." 

"Then,  Judge,  you  think  that  Mr.  Harrison  is 
not  Murphy's  puppet?" 

"  Tom  Tazewell,  no  man  here  believes  that  John 
Harrison  would  permit  himself  to  be  used  in  a  po 
litical  trick.  No  man  in  Virginia  is  more  surprised 
than  Timothy  Murphy  that  John  Harrison  has  done 
this  thing,  I  venture  to  say." 

Lelia  Braxton  heard  her  father's  words.  Later, 
as  she  told  him  good-night,  she  placed  her  arms 
about  his  neck  and  kissed  him  more  than  once. 
Judge  Braxton  knew  why. 

"  Mr.  Dandridge,  do  you  not  think  that  was  just 
splendid  of  Mr.  Dabney?" 

"No,  Miss  Lelia." 

"You  are  joking,  surely?" 

"No;  the  debt  can  never  be  paid  that  way.  I 
think  that  he  should  have  kept  his  money." 

"Then  I  will  not  talk  with  you." 


THE    BETRAYAL  273 

But  the  young  magistrate  had  pondered  over  the 
advice  of  his  party  leaders,  and  he  thought  that  his 
friend  had  made  a  mistake. 

"What  did  you  give,  Mr.  Dandridge?" 
"Ten  dollars." 
"Ten  dollars?" 
"Yes,  Miss  Betty." 

"If  /  were  a  young  man  I  would  give  all  my 
wealth  to  Virginia,  as  my  brother  did." 

Half  an  hour  later,  as  Miss  B'olling  and  Miss 
Dabney  together  went  over  the  list  of  subscribers, 
they  saw  that  Mr.  Dandridge  had  marked  out  the 
ten  dollars  that  he  had  set  opposite  to  his  name  and 
had  written  in  the  words,  "All  that  I  have." 

"  I  wish  to  read  this  letter  aloud,"  said  Miss 
Polly  Boiling,  trembling  as  she  rose  from  her  seat 
behind  the  table. 

"To  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society: 

"  I  regret  that  I  am  unable  to  accept  the  invitation  that 
you  orally  extended  to  all  the  gentlemen  of  Fauquier,  but  an 
important  political  engagement  keeps  me  at  my  office.  How 
ever,  I  wish  to  say  that  I  am  heartily  in  sympathy  with  your 
plans.  I  also  wish  to  thank  you  for  your  help  to  Virginia  in 
these  days  of  her  need ;  and  also  I  wish  to  say  that  the  Read- 
juster  party  will  be  glad  to  co-operate  with  you.  I  enclose 
my  cheque  for  one  hundred  dollars,  and  if  I  can  be  of  fur 
ther  assistance,  please  command  me. 

"  Respectfully  yours, 

"JAMES  SPOTSWOOD  TEMPLE. 
"  The  Warren-Green, 

"  Saturday  afternoon." 


274  THE    BETRAYAL 

"Zounds!  Zounds!  I  say  Zounds!  That  is  all 
that  I  can  say  in  the  presence  of  ladies!  Zounds! 
Zounds!  Miss  Boiling,  ma'am,  please  hand  that 
cheque  to  me.  I  shall  return  it  immediately.  Later, 
ma'am,  I  shall  take  occasion  to  resent  this  insult." 

;  No,  siree,  Colonel,"  Miss  Lancaster  interposed; 
"we're  going  to  keep  that  cheque.  You  can  bet  your 
bottom  dollar  on  that.  What,  let  Gary  give  every 
cent  he's  got,  and  not  take  Jimmy  Temple's  little 
hundred?  No,  sir;  not  if  the  court  knows  herself. 
We'll  get  all  out  of  the  Readjusters  that  we  can." 

Miss  Boiling  handed  the  cheque  to  Colonel  Dain- 
gerfield. 

"  Ladies,"  said  Judge  Braxton,  "  I  wish  to  advise 
you.  Do  not  pay  out  any  money  until  after  the 
election.  And  I  wish  to  add,  the  seeming  parsimony 
of  the  gentlemen  is  the  result  of  a  conference  held 
by  the  leaders  of  our  party  this  morning,  when  the 
decision  was  made  that  all  gentlemen  should  hold 
their  property  until  after  the  election.  You  ladies, 
who  know  your  fathers  and  husbands  and  brothers, 
will  suspend  judgment.  We  are  in  sympathy  with 
your  society,  and  we  thank  you  for  the  splendid  aid 
that  you  have  given  and  that  you  will  give  to  our 
cause." 

Mr.  Carter  called  Colonel  Daingerfield  aside. 

"  Now,  Francis,  return  that  cheque  without  com 
ment,  and  there  let  the  matter  end.  No  gentleman 
can  afford  to  enter  upon  a  controversy  with  that 
man." 

"  Sir,  I  shall  send  my  overseer  to  chastise  him." 

"Where's  your  overseer,  Colonel?" 

"  Lancaster,  I  had  forgot." 

"  Francis,  I  shall  not  permit  you  to  go  any  far- 


THE    BETRAYAL  275 

ther.  I  command  you,  sir,  to  return  that  cheque 
and  let  the  matter  end." 

Mrs.  Daingerfield  had  heard  Miss  Betty  Dabney 
pointedly  hint  to  Mr.  Dandridge  that  he  should 
contribute  his  large  fortune  to  the  association's  fund. 
She  determined  to  call  the  young  girl  aside  later  in 
the  evening  and  reprove  her,  for  the  Virginian  ma 
tron  never  hesitates  to  rebuke  the  young  girls  that 
violate  the  proprieties  in  her  presence.  The  moth 
erhood  of  the  Virginian  matron  is  all-inclusive,  and 
no  sensible  Virginian  girl  is  offended  when  she  is 
reprimanded  by  a  woman  that  is  a  great  deal  older 
than  herself — even  if  she  is  a  stranger.  But  Miss 
Betty,  having  found  out  that  Mrs.  Daingerfield  had 
overheard  her  broad  hint,  took  good  care  not  to  go 
near  her  during  the  rest  of  the  evening.  Miss 
Betty  was  among  the  first  to  leave. 

The  meeting  now  adjourned. 

In  the  early  morning  of  the  day  that  Inglewood 
was  sold  John  Harrison  sent  a  trunk  filled  with  his 
clothes  and  a  few  trinkets  of  value  to  himself  only 
to  the  Warren-Green  by  his  man  Jake.  Then  he 
left  the  home  of  his  fathers,  and  made  his  way  to 
his  new  home,  a  single  room  in  the  old  tavern.  As 
General  Murphy  had  asked  him  to  submit  plans  for 
the  settlement  of  the  debt  in  writing  by  noon  of  the 
next  day,  he  wrote  continuously  until  four  o'clock, 
when  he  was  interrupted  by  the  auctioneer,  who 
handed  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  all  his  real  and 
personal  property  to  him.  After  depositing  the 
money,  Harrison  drew  a  cheque  for  the  full  amount 
of  his  account,  made  payable  to  the  order  of  Miss 
Polly  Boiling. 


276  THE    BETRAYAL 

After  supper,  while  he  sat  in  his  new  home,  old 
Jake  entered  the  room,  first  having  received  per 
mission,  and  with  bowed  head  stood  before  his 
young  master. 

"Well,  Jake?" 

"  De  place  done  gone,  Marse  John;  de  place  done 
gone,  suh !  Mistah  Temple  he  done  pay  nuttin'  fo' 
it,  an'  when  he  done  git  it,  Marse  Taliaferro  he 
done  driv  up,  an'  he  say,  '  I  wants  de  place;  I'll  pay 
heap  more'n  dat.'  Mistah  Temple,  he  say,  '  De 
place  am  mine,  Mistah  Taliaferro.' ' 

No  word  did  John  Harrison  utter;  but  he  listened 
intently.  The  old  negro  continued,  his  eyes  plainly 
showing  his  anger. 

"  Marse  Taliaferro  he  say,  '  I  done  gib  double 
what  you  pay.'  Mistah  Temple,  he  done  say,  '  I 
don'  wan'  tek  no  Vantage  ob  you,  Mistah  Talia 
ferro;  I  done  paid  mo'n  de  place  wuth,  cayse  de 
state  need  de  money;  den  I  nebber  buyed  de  place 
fo'  speckerlatinV  Den  Marse  Taliaferro  done  tu'n 
on  he  heel,  he  face  done  lit  up  red-lek,  an'  he  eyes 
done  look  like  Marse  Daingerfield's  when  he  done 
tell  dem  peoples  ter  go  home." 

"  Mr.  Taliaferro  knew  the  hour  of  the  sale.  Did 
you  find  out  why  he  was  late?" 

The  old  negro's  eyes  shone  with  fire,  quite  equal 
to  that  which  he  had  seen  in  the  eyes  of  Colonel 
Daingerfield  and  Mr.  Taliaferro. 

"  Marse  Taliaferro  wan'  late,  Marse  Taliaferro 
wan',  suh.  He  done  driv  up  an  hour  'fo'  de  time 
sot  fo'  de  sale;  but  two  hours  'fo'  Mistah  Temple 
he  done  say  to  de  auction-man,  '  Come,  start  de  sale; 
what  you  waitin'  fo'?'  De  auction-man,  he  say, 
*  'Tain't  time  yit.'  But  Mistah  Temple  he  done  'low 


THE    BETRAYAL  277 

dat  de  auction-man  done  made  er  'stake  in  de  hour. 
He  done  tole  him  dat  de  ole  home's  fo'  sale  fust, 
den  what's  in  it.  Den  Mistah  Temple  he  say,  '  Ef 
you  don'  sell  de  place  now,  I's  gwine.  I  ain'  gwine 
hang  'roun'  hyah  waitin'  fo'  you.  Ebbybody's  here, 
anyways.'  He  done  'suaded  de  auction-man,  he 
done;  an'  den  he  done  bought  de  place  fo'  nuttin', 
cayse  nobody's  got  nuttin',  so  de  place  done  brought 
no  mo'n  half  what  you  done  say  it  oughter  fotch." 

The  old  negro  clinched  his  fists  tighter;  then  he 
slowly  relaxed;  his  form,  which  had  stood  erect  in 
his  anger,  now  gradually  bowed  low,  and  his  head 
sank  upon  his  breast. 

"  Ebbyt'ing  done  gone — dey  sole  yo'  hawse  an' 
buggy,  Marse  John.  Dey  sole  ole  Marser's  an'  ole 
Missus's  pictews  right  often  de  wall — de  folks  f'om 
way  back  yonder — eben  down  ter  yo'  pictew,  Marse 
John,  eben  down  ter  de  spoon  yo'  ole  aunt,  Miss 
Harrison,  done  gib  you  when  er  baby,  's  sole  out  wid 
de  t'other  silber.  Mistah  Temple  done  got  'tall." 

The  old  man  unpacked  his  master's  trunk,  laid 
his  evening  clothes  out  for  him,  and  then  retired  to 
a  corner  of  the  room,  where  he  stood  motionless. 

"Jake,  you  have  no  home?" 

"No,  suh." 

"And  I  have  no  money.  .  .  .  Do  you  wish  me 
to  find  work  for  you?" 

"  Marse  John,  I  nebber  done  no  wuk  in  all  mah 
life.  I's  too  ole  ter  wuk  now.  I  don'  wan'  no 
money,  Marse  John;  I  jes'  wants  ter  be  er  Ingle- 
wood  Harrison  till  I  die.  I  ain'  nebber  done  had 
no  wage,  'ceptin'  er  little  'baccer  money  now  an' 
den.  I  ain'  got  no  need  fo'  no  money.  I  kin  do 
widout  'baccer  money." 


278  THE    BETRAYAL 

'  Your  room  is  in  the  servant-quarters,  Jake. 
Never,  so  long  as  I  live,  shall  you  be  other  than 
an  Inglewood  Harrison.  Your  old  age  shall  be  one 
of  peace  and  comfort." 

An  hour  later  John  Harrison  was  in  Miss  Polly 
Boiling's  drawing-room. 

"John  Harrison,  this  is  the  first  time  that  you 
have  been  in  my  home  since  last  March.  I  have 
missed  you,  my  son.  I  am  an  old  woman  now,  and 
I  need  my  friends.  As  a  little  boy  you  were  in  and 
out  of  the  house  every  day;  as  a  lad  you  brought 
your  joys  and  your  troubles  to  me;  as  a  young  man 
you  made  me  your  confidante.  Do  you  remember, 
John,  that  you  told  me  of  your  love  for  Lelia  Brax- 
ton  even  before  you  told  her,  and  asked  me  if  I 
thought  that  you  had  any  chance  to  win  her  heart? 
I  told  you,  my  boy,  that  you  could  win  any  woman's 
heart,  for  you  would  never  find  a  heart  purer  than 
your  own.  And  you,  my  John,  have  not  been  near 
your  old  mother  for  nearly  two  months." 

The  young  man  knelt  and  kissed  Miss  Boiling's 
hand.  Then,  like  some  queen-mother  of  old,  she 
raised  him  by  the  hand  that  held  hers  and  kissed 
first  one  and  then  the  other  of  his  blue  eyes. 

"  Miss  Polly,  here  is  the  cheque — the  cheque  for 
the  Ladies'  Aid  Society.  I  have  one  hundred  dol 
lars  left." 

"John  Harrison,  I — have  not  wept — for  forty 
years — I  have  not  wept.  No,  I  shed  tears  once  in 
all  that  time.  Now,  John — pardon  the — infirmities 
of  age.  I  shall  be  calm  soon." 

Again  he  knelt;  again  he  kissed  the  withered 
hand.  Then  he  withdrew  quietly,  as  a  subject  with 
draws  from  the  presence  of  his  sovereign. 


THE    BETRAYAL  279 

Harrison  went  directly  to  Morven  from  the  Boi 
ling  dwelling.  He  found  the  family  in  the  drawing- 
room.  Judge  and  Mrs.  Braxton  were  very  grave, 
and  Miss  Braxton's  face  was  almost  as  white  as  her 
dress  as  she  stood  by  Taliaferro's  sculpture  of 
Homer,  aimlessly  passing  a  red  rose  to  and  fro  over 
the  white  marble  face.  The  young  man  had  ad 
vanced  toward  Mrs.  Braxton  to  shake  hands  with 
her,  but  she  had  not  offered  her  hand  to  him;  so  he 
had  bowed  low,  and  then  he  had  bowed  to  Miss 
Braxton.  The  judge  addressed  him. 

"  How  do  you  do,  Mr.  Harrison?  Inglewood  was 
purchased  by  Captain  Temple,  I  have  been  told,  the 
purchase  price  being  less  than  half  its  value." 

Mr.  Harrison  vouchsafed  no  explanation;  but  he 
again  bowed  low,  then  stood  erect,  his  pride  that 
of  generations  of  Harrisons. 

"  Mr.  Braxton,  I  am  now  ready  to  assist  you  in 
searching  for  references  in  the  library,"  said  Mrs. 
Braxton. 

For  fully  a  minute  after  her  father  and  mother 
left  the  room  Miss  Braxton  stood  in  silence  by  the 
bust  of  Homer,  still  toying  with  the  rose,  as  though 
its  perfume  could  quicken  the  cold  marble.  She  was 
the  first  to  speak. 

"  You — you — now  you  are  the  noblest  of  all  Vir 
ginians.  I — I  love — I  have  lived  in  you  all  day. 
I— I " 

In  two  strides  John  Harrison  had  reached  her 
side,  he  had  seized  her  hand,  and  then — John  Har 
rison  forgot  the  precepts  of  his  fathers.  He  caught 
her  in  his  arms;  he  pressed  her  to  his  heart;  he 
kissed  her  fiercely,  and  then  his  kisses  became  tender 
and  still  more  tender  as  he  held  her.  She  did  not 


280  THE    BETRAYAL 

resist.  She  was  exhausted.  She  was  like  some  little 
girl  that  lies  motionless  upon  her  father's  bosom 
after  a  storm  of  tears.  All  day  long  her  heart  had 
sobbed. 

Leading  her  to  a  huge  upholstered  chair,  he  bent 
his  knee  as  he  took  her  hand. 

"  Lelia,  I  have  done  no  more  than  a  man's  part — 
not  so  much  as  thousands  of  men  have  done  for 
Virginia,  and  not  so  much  as  I  have  done  for  her 
since  the  evening,  in  the  magnolia  grove,  that  you 
prayed  to  God  to  show  you  the  way." 

"I  know,  John;  I  know." 

"  I  have  given  no  more  than  you,  for  have  you 
not  given  all,  even  your  heart,  as  I  have  given  mine? 
But  Virginia  does  not  expect  us  to  give  our  love, 
nor  is  she  willing  to  take  that  love  from  us.  Lelia, 
our  love  is  our  own.  You  are  bound  to  me,  my 
love,  O  my  love,  my  Lelia,  by  bonds  that  can  not 
be  broken — even  by  death.  They  are  bonds  stronger 
than  our  betrothal  vows — stronger  than  the  vows  of 
marriage.  We  are  bound  by  love,  the  bonds  of 
gold  that  were  wrought  by  Almighty  God,  stronger 
than  all  the  chains  forged  by  Vulcan,  and  stronger 
than  the  will  of  man.  Lelia,  let  us  repeat  our  be 
trothal  vows  before  God's  altar — now,  Lelia,  now ! 
Surely  God  has  answered  your  prayer — He  has 
shown  you  the  way." 

Her  eyes  fell;  her  cheeks  were  aglow;  her  bosom 
heaved.  John  Harrison  bent  over  her  hand,  that 
she  might  have  time.  With  her  disengaged  hand 
timidly,  caressingly,  she  touched  his  hair.  Then  she 
let  her  hand  rest  on  his  head. 

"  Ever  since  that  evening — every  night — every 
morning — and  all  day  long — I  have  prayed — as  we 


THE    BETRAYAL  281 

prayed  together.     But  God  has  not  shown  me  the 
way — unless  this  way:  we  must  live  our  lives  apart 
until — until — John,  until  you  see  Virginia's  way." 
And  again  Harrison  went  out  into  the  night. 

Miss  Polly  Boiling  regained  her  composure  soon 
after  Harrison  had  left  her.  She  knew  where  he 
had  gone,  and  she  knew  that  her  boy  would  say 
nothing  about  his  gift;  but  Leila  Braxton — she 
should  know  that  very  night.  She  loved  the  young 
girl — first,  because  John  Harrison  loved  her,  then 
because  Lelia  Braxton  was  the  most  lovable  girl 
that  she  had  ever  known.  A  letter  from  Miss  Boll- 
ing  to  Mrs.  Braxton,  which  really  was  meant  for 
Miss  Braxton,  was  delivered  a  few  minutes  before 
eleven  that  night. 

Although  Judge  Braxton  had  been  in  bed  for 
more  than  an  hour  when  Miss  Boiling's  letter  was 
delivered,  he  began  to  dress,  and  before  midnight 
had  aroused  John  Harrison,  who  was  sleeping 
soundly  in  his  Warren-Green  room. 

"  John,  forgive  me !  I  have  known  you  since  the 
day  that  Mr.  Carter  and  I  stood  as  your  sponsors 
in  baptism,  when  you,  less  than  a  month  old,  were 
held  in  John  Harrison's  arms.  I  should  have  known 
that  you  were  incapable  of  any  deliberate  act  of  in 
famy,  i  ask  you  to  forgive  me." 

No  word  did  John  Harrison  say,  but  he  grasped 
Judge  Braxton's  hand.  Then,  without  another 
word,  the  judge  returned  to  Morven. 

Captain  Temple,  believing  that  all  women  love 
men  when  they  love,  had  called  at  Morven  half 
an  hour  before  John  Harrison  had  been  announced. 


282  THE     BETRAYAL 

Temple  believed  that  Lelia  Braxton  had  never  loved 
Harrison,  that  she  could  never  have  loved  a  goody- 
goody  baby-boy  type  of  man,  always  right,  but  al 
ways  wrong  when  right.  Now  he,  Temple,  would 
compel  her  admiration,  unknown  even  to  herself,  by 
a  bold,  daring  move.  Insolence?  Yes;  but  do  not 
all  women  really  admire  insolence  in  men?  So 
thought  Temple. 

Miss  Braxton  was  in  the  conservatory  when  she 
heard  Temple's  voice  as  he  asked  the  old  butler  if 
she  were  at  home. 

William  ushered  the  captain  into  the  drawing- 
room,  whence  his  young  mistress  was  visible  through 
the  doorway.  The  new  owner  of  Inglewood  could 
overhear  Miss  Braxton  and  the  servant,  as  they  and 
the  captain  knew. 

"  I  declar',  Marse  Braxton  sholy  would  say  ef  he 
done  saw  you,  wid  all  dem  flowers  hangin'  'bout 
you,  what  he  allers  done  say  ter  Mistis — 

" '  Miss  Braxton  'mongst  de  flowers, 

Herse'f  er  flower  fairer  dan  de  rose.'  " 

"  I  always  knew  that  you  were  a  poet,  William." 

"How  you  done  know  dat,  chile?" 

"  Because  you  love  flowers,  and  everybody  that 
loves  flowers  is  a  poet  by  nature.  You  take  care  of 
my  flowers  for  me,  William,  like  one  who  loves 
flowers." 

"  Dat's  cayse  I  loves  you,  liT  Missus,  an'  Sary 
loves  you — an'  all  loves  you." 

Then  William  went  back  into  the  drawing- 
room. 

"She  say  as  how  she  ain'  home,  suh." 


THE    BETRAYAL  283 

"  Very  well ;  tell  her  I  am  sorry — that  I  will  call 
again." 

"Good-morning,  Colonel  Daingerfield!" 

"  Good-morning,  Miss  Lancaster." 

'  This  morning,  sir,  as  I  drove  through  these 
spacious  grounds,  so  beautifully  garlanded,  so  like 
some  fairyland,  I  heard  the  robin,  the  bird  of  the 
morning,  sobbing  forth  his  plaintive  song  of  woe. 
Sir,  that  song  seemed  to  me  to  say,  '  Awake,  Vir 
ginians;  buckle  on  your  armour;  come  to  the  rescue 
of  this  your  native  land !' ' 

"  Madam, — I — I — madam, — I — I " 

"  Cease,  Francis,  cease !  This  is  not  a  time  for  im 
patience,  but  for  thought.  We  must  meet  this  issue 
in  a  manner  worthy  of  Virginia  and  her  dead  sons ! 
Let  not  the  mocking  of  a  young  girl  arouse  you  to 
anger,  but  remember  that  out  of  the  mouth  of  babes 
and  sucklings  cometh  wisdom.  Be  calm,  Francis ! 
Becalm!" 

"  Madam,  I  shall  announce  your  arrival  to  Mrs. 
Daingerfield." 

"  Now  please  don't  be  mad,  Colonel ;  I  did  so  want 
to  get  you  into  a  good  humour.  I  hadn't  the  least 
idea  that  you'd  take  me  seriously.  I  was  just  fool 
ing — honest  to  Gawd  I  wus!  I've  come  for  suppen." 

"  Madam,  I  shall  take  great  pleasure  in  serving 
you." 

"  Sir,  you  fill  me  with  joyful  emotions.  I  take 
great  pleasure  in  permitting  you  to  serve  me.  Sir, 
I'm  the  committee  on  personal  solicitation,  and 
I've  the  honour  to  request  that  you  contribute  gen 
erously  to  the  fund  of  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society — a 
fund,  sir,  that  shall  be  used  to  save  the  honour  of 


284  THE    BETRAYAL 

Virginia.  I  ask  that  you  sell  Bannockburn  and  all 
your  hereditaments  and  personal  belongings  and  that 
you  give  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  to  me;  that  you  here 
and  now  hand  a  cheque  to  me  for  the  full  amount 
of  your  bank  balance,  and  thereby  prove  that  the 
Debtpayers,  sir, — the  Debtpayers, — mean  to  pay  the 
debt,  that  they  do  not  mean  to  leave  the  payment 
thereof  to  wicked  Repudiators." 

"  Already,  Miss  Lancaster,  you  have  been  told 
that  your  elders  believe  that  the  debt  should  not  be 
paid  by  the  sale  of  Virginia  to  Murphyites  and  for 
eigners.  I  shall  announce  your  visit  to  Mrs.  Dain- 
gerfield  now,  if  you  will  excuse  me  for  a  few  min 
utes." 

"Hold,  Francis,  hold!" 

"Madam!" 

"  Judge  Braxton  gave  me  a  cheque  for  a  lot  of 
money." 

"  Doubtless  you  refer  to  the  ten  dollars  that  he 
subscribed  while  he  was  the  guest  of  the  Ladies'  Aid 
Society.  I  have  paid  the  ten  dollars  that  I  subscribed 
at  that  time." 

"  No  such  thing — I've  got  his  big  cheque  right  in 
this  bag.  Want  to  see  it?" 

"  I  will  take  your  word  for  it,  madam." 

"Oh,  please  do  give  me  something — please;  that's 
a  dear  old  Gunnel !  " 

"  I  will  write  you  a  check  for  twenty-five  dollars 
—that  Mrs.  Daingerfield  no  longer  may  be  deprived 
of  the  pleasure  of  your  company." 

"Pooh!  No,  you  don't,  Colonel!  Hola!  pas  si 
vitef  Judge  Braxton  gave  me  one  hundred  dollars, 
and  he's  not  a  professional  politician." 

"  I  am  tempted  to  give  you  as  much — that  Mrs. 


THE    BETRAYAL  285 

Daingerfield  may  be  immediately  apprised  of  your 
call — but  I  regret  to  say,  madam,  I  am  not  a  man 
of  wealth,  so  I  am  unable  to  give  you  more  than 
this  modest  cheque.  Here  is  the  twenty-five  dol 
lars." 

"I  suppose  beggars  mustn't  be  choosers;  so  I 
thank  you  very  much.  But  remember,  sir,  ours — 
ours,  I  say — is  a  noble  cause.  We  fight  for  Virginia 
— not  for  ourselves.  Now,  sir,  I'll  not  trouble  you  to 
call  dear  old  Mrs.  Daingerfield;  but  I  shall  go  forth 
through  your  spacious  grounds,  and  the  plaintive 
songs  of  the  robins  will  fall  upon  my  ears  like  Vir 
ginia's  dirge.  Mournfully  will  they  sing:  'The 
master  gave  but  twenty-five  dollars — a  mean  little 
cheque  for  twenty-five  dollars.'  By-bye,  Gunnel ! " 

"  Madam,  good-morning  1 " 

"Good-afternoon,  Mr.  Rice!" 

"  Good-evenin',  Miss  Lancaster.  Come  right  in, 
an'  wait  a  minute  whilst  I  go  an'  call  down  Eugenie 
Victoria  an'  Phyllis  Daphne  an'  Dorothea  Annabel 
an'  maw — an'  Reg'nal'  La'nc'lot,  the  doctor.  I'm 
mighty  glad  to  see  you — mighty  glad.  You  know 
you  ain't  been  in  my  house  befo'  in  all  the  time 
you've  been  a-comin'  to  Warrenton.  I  certainly  is 
mighty  glad  to  see  you — I  certainly  is  mighty  glad." 

"  I've  tried  time  and  again  to  come,  Mr.  Rice, 
but  something  always  happened  to  prevent.  You 
know,  I  was  at  Mrs.  Stuart's  with  Dorothea  Anna 
bel  part  of  a  year,  and  I'm  very,  very  fond  of  her. 
She  was  the  most  popular  girl  there — and  oh  so 
smart!  I  left  after  a  year;  but  Dorothea — that 
girl  just  stayed  six  whole  years.  And  she's  as  pretty 
as  she's  smart." 


286  THE    BETRAYAL 

"Eugenie  Victoria  an'  Phyllis  Daphne  is  mighty 
likely  gyurls  too,  I  can  tell  you." 

"They  certainly  are,  Mr.  Rice.  I've  heard  that 
Eugenie  Victoria's  one  of  the  best  housekeepers  in 
Fauquier;  and  everybody  says  Phyllis  Daphne  looks 
just  like  her  mother — and  nobody  can  say  more 
than  that,  for  Mrs.  Rice  is  just  too  lovely  for  any 
thing." 

1  You  don't  know  the  doctor,  Reg'nal'  La'nc'lot, 
do  you?" 

"Not  personally;  but  I've  seen  him  at  church — 
St.  James,  you  know." 

"  I'll  go  call  him  now!  He  may  be  hangin'  around 
the  house,  an'  he  ain't  never  set  up  to  no  gyurl. 
He's  a  mighty  likely  boy, — doctor — Reg'nal' 
La'nc'lot  is.  Time's  comin'  when  he's  goin'  to  get 
a  mighty  fine  house  an'  some  mighty  broad  acres." 

"  Mr.  Rice,  I've  come  to  ask  your  help.  Please 
sell  all  your  vast  estate  and  every  bit  of  your  prop 
erty,  for  I  want  to  give  the  money  to  the  Ladies' 
Aid  Society  for  the  creditors.  I  ask  you  to  give  me 
a  cheque  for  all  that  you've  got  in  bank.  I'm  au 
thorised  to  receive  the  money." 

''  Them's  monstrous  propositions  of  yoiirn,  Miss 
Lancaster.  You  shorely  don't  expect  no  sech  thing 
of  a  man  as  has  worked  hard  to  gather  a  little  to 
gether  for  his  family — 'specially  for  his  son  to 
marry  on.  Now,  Harrison  an'  Dandridge  an' 
Dabney,  them  young  bloods  has  never  made  no 
money — well,  it  comes  easy  an'  it  goes  easy  with 
them.  I  sweated  out  all  I  got,  an'  there's  none  o' 
that  sweat  goin'  to  no  creditors." 

"  But  you'll  give  something,  surely?  I'm  trying 
to  raise  more  money  than  all  the  other  ladies  put 


THE     BETRAYAL  287 

together.  Surely,  Mr.  Rice,  you'll  give  me  a  little 
something  ?  Surely  ?  " 

"  Well,  bein's  it's  you,  here's  a  dollar." 

"  I  don't  want  a  dollar.  Good-afternoon,  Mr. 
Rice." 

"  Well,  here's  two  dollar  fifty  cent,  an'  I  only 
gives  it  because  it's  you  as  asks  for  it." 

"  I  never  asked  for  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents." 

"Well,  I  didn't  borrow  no  money;  an'  I  ain't  had 
no  benefit  from  what  was  borrowed;  an'  I  ain't  goin' 
to  pay  nobody  else's  debts,  I  ain't." 

"Why,  Senator  Rice!" 

"  I  am  a  Readjuster,  I  am — as  everybody  knows." 

"  You're  a  Repudiator — as  everybody  don't 
know." 

"Well,  here's  five  dollars — an'  you  needn't  say 
nothin'  about  'pudiatin'  to  nobody." 

"  I'll  take  your  five  dollars.  C'est  magnifique!  I 
thank  you  very,  very  much.  But  I  will  say  some 
thing  about  *  'pudiatin'.'  I  don't  take  bribes." 

"  I'll  go  call  them  folks." 

"No;  I'm  too  greatly  agitated  to  interview  them 
now — I  wouldn't  get  a  cent  out  of  them  if  I  did. 
Good-afternoon." 

"  Good-evenin'.  Come  again  right  soon.  I  know 
maw  an'  all  the  gyurls  an'  the  doctor,  Reg'nal' 
La'nc'lot,  '11  be  glad  to  see  you." 

"  I've  come  for  the  one  hundred  dollars." 

"  I  thought  that  you  would  be  around." 

"  Why,  Captain   Temple!     How  could  you  have 

thought  such  a  thing!" 

"  I  thought  that  you  would  not  forget,  '  de  falre 

fleche  tout  bois!'     I  had  a  few  other  thoughts  as 


288  THE    BETRAYAL 

well.  The  cheque  came  back  in  an  envelope  with  no 
other  enclosure,  returned  to  me  by  Colonel  Dainger- 
field.  'Ah,'  thought  I,  'not  so  would  Gladys  Lan 
caster  have  conserved  my  interests.'  Then  I  had  a 
few  other  thoughts,  not  to  mention  a  few  pleasurable 
emotions.  I  always  like  to  see  my  clients — of  whom 
you  are  the  most  honoured — exercise  their  business 
instincts.  I  could  see  you — I  could  feel  you — as  you 
said,  'Hold  on  there,  Colonel!  no,  you  don't,  sir! 
Give  me  that  cheque !  What,  are  we  to  spend  our 
money  and  then  refuse  to  capture  our  enemy's  stores 
when  they're  raided?  No,  sir,  you  just  hand  me 
back  that  cheque ! '  I  feel  certain,  Miss  Lancaster, 
that  you  did  not  protect  my  property  for  me — that 
I  have  Colonel  Daingerfield,  not  you,  to  thank  for 
the  preservation  of  my  bank  balance." 

"With  me,  Virginia  first;  then  my  friends." 

"With  me,  my  friends;  for  they  are  Virginia." 

"Your  friends,  did  you  say?" 

"Yes,  my  friends;  you,  for  example,  are  the  spirit 
of  new  Virginia,  the  Virginia  that  will  use  her  dead 
self  as  a  stepping-stone  to  higher  things.  I  love  the 
beautiful  young  Virginia;  nor  do  I  love  her  mother 
less  because  I  love  her  daughter  more." 

"  Please  let  me  have  the  hundred  now." 

"Is  that  all?" 

"  No,  the  hundred  belongs  to  my  clients  already. 
I  am  the  committee  on  personal  solicitation,  repre 
senting  the  people  of  Virginia,  and  upon  behalf  of 
my  clients  I  demand  that  you  sell  all  your  property 
and  turn  over  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  to  me." 

"  Why,  my  dear  sir,  your  claim  is  outlawed!  Your 
clients  went  into  bankruptcy  fourteen  years  ago!" 


THE     BETRAYAL  289 

"  Virginia,  sir,  expects  every  man  to  do  his  duty. 
She  demands  that  her  sons  defend  her  honour." 

"  But,  my  dear  sir;  the  state  is  insolvent;  the  war 
left  her  devastated;  Reconstructors  fed  upon  her 
flesh;  carpetbaggers  picked  her  bones;  the " 

"  Inglewood  is  a  lively  corpse,  Jim  Temple.  That 
property  should  be  sold  again;  and  again  the  pro 
ceeds  of  the  sale  should  be  paid  to  my  clients." 

"  Here  is  the  cheque." 

"  That's  the  same  cheque  I  " 

"Yes." 

"  But  this  business  must  be  sub-rosa,  because  the 
Ladies'  Aid  Society  wouldn't  accept  a  penny  from 
you  if  they  knew." 

'  Then  how  would  you  account  for  the  one  hun 
dred  dollars?" 

"  Why,  that  was  to  be  my  pocket  money.  '  Poor 
Gladys,  she  gave  every  cent  of  her  pocket  money ! ' 

"  Almost  as  clever  as  Gladys  Lancaster  herself." 

"  The  end  justifies  the  means." 
'  The  spirit  of  young  Virginia  !  " 

"  Please  give  me  the  money  in  cash." 

He  did. 


CHAPTER   SEVEN 

THE  Readjuster  convention  would  convene 
the  second  day  of  June.  General  Murphy 
believed  that  the  rule  which  General  For 
rest  promulgated,  "  Git  dar  fustis  wid  de  mostis 
men,"  applied  to  politics  as  well  as  to  war.  The 
Democratic  convention  would  not  convene  until  the 
fifth  of  August.  Said  the  chairman  of  that  party 
for  the  commonwealth,  "  Politics  and  war  differ  ma 
terially;  in  politics  the  last  shall  be  first,  and  the 
first  shall  be  last."  Even  unto  this  day  Democrats 
hold  their  conventions  after  their  opponents  have 
selected  their  candidates. 

The  latter  part  of  May  finds  Timothy  Murphy 
in  his  headquarters  in  the  Whig  building  in  the  cap 
ital.  The  leader  slept  in  a  small  room  over  a  grog- 
gery,  when  he  did  not  sleep  in  a  room  in  the  Whig 
building, — a  room  with  white  walls,  furnished  with 
a  bed,  a  small  mirror,  a  single  split-bottom  chair,  a 
papier-mache  spittoon,  and  four  hooks  driven  into 
the  door.  No  carpet  was  on  the  floor.  Saloons  boxed 
the  compass.  Everywhere  was  the  odour  of  sour 
beer,  causing  the  leader  constantly  to  remember  the 
people — for  Mr.  William  R.  Hearst  was  not  the 
first  eminent  statesman  to  hold  that  the  voice  of  the 
people  is  wafted  to  God  over  the  foam  of  a  stein  of 
beer.  Possibly  General  Murphy  and  Mr.  Hearst 
mistook  the  breath  for  the  voice — and  possibly  they 
made  no  mistake. 

In  and  out  of  the  Whig  building  poured  Mur- 
290 


THE     BETRAYAL  291 

phyites  from  early  in  the  morning  until  late  at  night. 
Every  visitor  on  leaving  the  leader  was  satisfied. 
Some  went  in  like  lions;  but  they  always  left  like 
lambs.  Murphy  read  men  as  some  men  read  books 
—he  saw  the  cover,  he  had  absorbed  the  book. 

"  I  hev  de  distinguishment,  Gen'l,  ter  be  de  Rev'- 
ent  Doctah  Shadrak  Meshuk  'Bednigger  Berkeley, 
ob  Virginia;  an'  I's  had  er  call  from  Gawd  A'mighty 
in  er  dream  ter  run  fo'  de  house  ob  delegation." 

"  Doctor,  for  many  years  your  name  has  been  a 
byword  in  Virginia." 

"  De  gift  ob  oratin'  wus  born  In  me,  Gen'l.  I 
disinherited  hit  from  all  mah  peoples;  an'  now, 
Gen'l,  I  feels  dat  in  de  Readjuster  party  us  cullud 
brederen  am  'bout  ter  be  frustrated  in  de  mos'  sub- 
sequential  an'  satisfactory  way." 

"  I  am  deeply  interested  in  your  people,  Dr. 
Berkeley.  I  wish  to  help  them  in  every  way  that  is 
in  my  power." 

"  I  knows  hit,  Gen'l,  an'  I's  obligated  ter  you.  I 
knows,  too,  dat  cullud  gemmen  in  de  nex'  Desembly 
will  hev  abrogated  out  ter  dem  all  de  dispositions 
jes'  de  same  as  am  enj'yed  by  de  whitewashed  cul 
lud  gemmen.  I  seen  hit  in  mah  dream;  an'  de  big 
white  angel  dat  stood  at  de  head  ob  mah  bed,  a-flap- 
pin'  ob  her  wings,  she  say,  '  Doctah  Berkeley,  when 
de  dishonourable  position  am  'stowed  up-on  you,  jes' 
you  hold  Gen'l  Murphy  up  fo'  yo'  guidance  come 
thick  an'  thin;'  an'  in  mah  dream  I  say,  'Yea, 
Lawd,  I's  calkerlatin'  ter  follow  him  same  as  de 
peoples  followed  Moses  outen  de  Ian'  ob  Canaan, 
an'  I's  gwine  gib  'bediency  ter  him  lek  I  does  ter  de 
Good  Word." 


292  THE     BETRAYAL 

"You  shall  have  my  support." 

As  General  Murphy  shook  hands  with  Dr.  Berke 
ley  he  left  a  double  eagle  in  the  clutch  of  the  rev 
erend  gentleman's  great  paw. 

"  For  foreign  missions,  Doctor." 

"Yaas,  suh;  fo'  ferren  missions." 

"My  dear  Gen1!!" 

"Judge  Tanner!  This  is  indeed  a  pleasure!" 
"  Gen'l,  my  clients,  the  people,  spake,  vox  popu 
lar  vox  Do-' em  best,  and  I  heard  their  voice :  '  Judge 
Tanner,  sir,  go  up  to  Richmond  and  find  out  from 
Gen'l  Murphy  the  meanin'  of  young  Harrison's 
sellin'  out  his  prop'ty.'  I  tell  you,  Gen'l,  my  clients 
would  a-left  the  party,  sir  ratimy  if  Temple,  the  old 
governor's  son,  hadn't  a-bought  it  in.  A  slick  ar 
ticle,  that  Temple  boy;  but  I'll  sw'ar  if  old  Judge 
Harrison's  son  didn't  git  up  befo'  day  and  subpoena 
him." 

"  Both  are  bright  young  men,  Judge;  very  bright." 
"Deuced  bright,  I  say,  Gen'l;  and  so  say  my 
clients,  the  people — vox  popular  vox  Do-em  best. 
They  are  so  deuced  smart  nobody  knows  the  ins  and 
outs  of  their  hocus-pocus.  Waddy  says  he  believes 
no  coin  passed;  so  Harrison'll  not  have  to  buy  the 
place  back  with  Temple's  money;  but  Nottingham 
— one  of  them  seventeen  thousand  gents  o'  that  name 
as  hangs  around  Eastville — says  the  title  passed,  and 
he  says  as  how  he  'lows  Temple's  too  slick  an  article 
ever  to  let  that  property  git  away  from  him  unless 
he  salts  down  a  heap  o'  money — and  a  heap  more'n 
he  paid  for  it.  I  keeps  my  tongue  where  it  belongs; 
but  I  don't  mind  sayin'  to  you,  Gen'l,  the  obiter  die- 


THE    BETRAYAL  293 

turn  o'  this  court  is  that  no  Fauquier  youth  can  set 
up  with  a  Northampton  b'y.  The  east  is  superior 
to  the  west.  Them  Cohoes  ain't  in  it  with  us  Tuck- 
ahoes.  Temple's  got  the  land  and  the  money,  and 
he's  goin'  to  keep  'em  both.  But  another  one  of 
my  clients  says  as  how  this  here  debt  is  to  be  repu 
diated,  and  that's  why  I'm  here.  My  clients  want 
to  know.  How? — vox  popular  vox  Do-' em  best." 

"  Boys  will  be  boys,  Judge.  We  were  boys  our 
selves  once — hey?" 

"  Well,  my  dear  Gen'l,  you  must  bear  in  mind 
that  my  clients,  the  people,  the  very  plain  people, 
says  as  how  anybody  that's  got  money  to  throw  away 
can  pay  that  darn  debt;  and  they  want  you  to  know, 
and  to  keep  steadily  befo'  your  eyesight,  as  how  they 
ain't  got  no  money  to  fling  away.  And  that's  the 
interlocutory  decree  o'  this  here  nisi  pris  cote." 

"Now,  now,  Judge;  I  know  the  good  people  of 
the  Eastern  Shore  advocate  Temple's  nomination, 
and  I  do  not  mind  saying  to  you,  in  the  strictest 
confidence,  that  I  really  support  his  candidacy.  Har 
rison  shows  that  he  is  a  dangerous  man  by  the  prank 
that  disturbed  your  clients.  Captain  Temple  and  I 
came  to  the  rescue  of  the  party,  Temple  purchasing 
the  property.  We  saw  at  a  glance  that  Harrison's 
gift  would  cost  us  more  votes  than  we  could  hope  to 
gain  by  his  extraordinary  behaviour." 

"  My  dear  Gen'l !  " 

"Judge  Tanner!     Call  again." 

"  I  am  glad  to  see  you,  Professor  Simpson." 
"  General,  I  have  called  to  advocate  the  nomina 
tion  of  Mr.  Jones.     Education  in  this  state  should 


294  THE    BETRAYAL 

receive  more  attention,  for  teachers  are  not  able  to 
make  a  living  out  of  free  schools.  College  pro 
fessors  are.  not  much  better  off." 

"  I  shall  consider  your  suggestion.  Mr.  Jones  is 
an  able  man;  he  has  my  warm  support.  I  can  assure 
you,  moreover,  that  our  candidate  for  governor 
shall  advocate  liberality  in  the  management  of  the 
public  schools.  I  myself  shall  cause  a  bill  to  be 
introduced  that  will  provide  for  an  increase  in  the 
salaries  of  college  professors." 

The  leader  could  feel  that  a  burden  rested  upon 
the  fine  mind  of  the  Laurel  Hill  mathematician,  but 
he  would  ask  that  gentleman  no  leading  question. 

"  I'm  pretty  hard  up." 

"All  men  seem  to  be  hard  up,  Professor,  unless 
Mr.  Harrison  and  Captain  Temple  are  exceptions. 
Possibly  Mr.  Harrison  would  lend  you  some  of  the 
money  that  was  recently  paid  to  him  by  Captain 
Temple?" 

"  Some  folks  say  one  thing  and  some  say  another 
about  that  transaction,  General.  But  Mr.  Harrison 
seems  to  be  without  means,  and  nobody  thinks  that 
he  has  any  money,  while  there  are  those  that  say 
that  you  are  the  only  man  who  knows  where  the  cash 
has  gone.  I  thought  you  might  lend  me  fifty 
dollars." 

"  I  have  nothing,  Professor.  Wait  until  after  the 
election,  when,  I  think,  our  soldiers  that  are  now  in 
the  thick  of  the  fight  will  find  money  quite  plentiful. 
Keep  in  the  thick  of  the  fight,  Professor." 

"  There's  another — er — er — little  matter — er— 
er " 

"  Now,  Professor  Simpson,  you  have  not  given  me 
time  in  which  to  mention  a  matter  that  I  have  had 


THE    BETRAYAL  295 

in  mind  for  some  time.  I  read  your  monograph  on 
the  fourth  dimension  with  a  great  deal  of  pleasure. 
As  soon  as  I  had  read  it  I  said,  Here  is  the  man 
for  the  chair  of  mathematics  in  our  great  university. 
If  our  party  be  elected,  I  assure  you  that  the  old  uni 
versity  shall  be  no  longer  without  a  competent  in 
structor  in  that  department." 

The  lank  form  of  the  professor  left  the  Presence. 

Time  was  when  the  professors  and  students  of  the 
University  of  Virginia  were  gentlemen. 

Time  was  when  the  professors  and  regents  of  the 
University  of  Virginia  were  native  Virginians. 

In  this  year  of  our  Lord  1910  a  few  of  the  pro 
fessors  and  a  few  of  the  students  of  the  University 
of  Virginia  are  gentlemen. 

A  few  of  the  professors  of  the  University  of  Vir 
ginia  are  native  Virginians  in  this  year  of  our  Lord 
1910. 

However,  unlike  Johns  Hopkins  University,  an 
institution  that  was  established  for  the  education  of 
southern  young  men,  even  now  more  than  half  the 
teachers  of  the  University  of  Virginia  were  born 
south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line.  Johns  Hopkins 
University  now  has  one  teacher  who  was  born  south 
of  that  line. 

Moreover,  the  funds  of  the  University  of  Vir 
ginia  have  not  been  used  to  further  private  enter 
prises,  nor  have  they  been  taken  as  tonics  by  mori 
bund  railroads. 

"  Harmony,  gentlemen,  harmony !  Harmony  is  the 
password  to  success;  yet  I  find  Salem  divided.  Mr. 
Brown,  you  support  Mr.  Harrison;  Mr.  Fletcher, 


296  THE    BETRAYAL 

you  advocate  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Jones;  Mr. 
Johnson,  you  think " 

"  Boss,  us  cullud  gemmen  say  ef  de  cullud  vote  is 
gwine  ter  'lect  de  gubbenor,  he  oughter  be  er  cullud 
gemman  gubbenor." 

No  one  seemed  to  have  heard  the  statesman  from 
Salem. 

"Mr.  Harrison  is  my  favourite,  General.  Why? 
Because  his  oratory  charms  the  ear;  because  his 
words  pour  forth  from  his  throat  like  the  song  of 
a  bird;  because  his  reasoning  is  not  surpassed  by 
that  of  John  Marshall  himself;  because  his  mag 
netism  is  like  unto  the  north  star.  Sir,  I  am  for 
Harrison;  I  am  for  the  man  who  is  for  the  people; 
I  am  for  the  man  who  knows  how  to  talk.  I  am 
for  oratory  and  John  Randolph  Harrison!" 

"An'  Fletcher's  for  the  man  as  is  the  farmer's 
friend.  He's  for  the  man  as  can  pray  when  it  rains 
too  hard,  an'  as  can  pray  when  it  don't  rain  hard 
enough;  he's  for  the  man  as  can  preach;  he's  for 
the  man  as  believes  in  lettin'  tax  money  alone  till 
the  time  comes  to  pay  it  out  for  free  schools;  he's 
for  the  preacher  as  don't  take  money  as  don't  be 
long  to  him;  he's  for  the  Christian  as  the  water  of 
baptism  has  washed  clean.  I'm  for  John  Henry 
Jones!" 

"An*  say,  boss,  I  done  spoke  once,  an'  now  I 
wants  you  ter  hyah,  an'  now  I  wants  you  ter  heed! 
I  say  a  cullud  gemman  fo'  gubbenor,  an'  I  'spects 
I  knows  whar  de  right  kin'  ob  cullud  gemman  kin 
be  found.  You  ain't  got  ter  go  fur." 

"  Buck  Johnson,  you  may  think  that  a  black  man 
is  as  good  as  a  white  man.  However  that  may  be, 
neither  a  white  man  nor  a  black  man  shall  address 


THE    BETRAYAL  297 

me  in  that  manner.  Were  you  as  white  as  the  gar 
ments  of  angels  and  intentionally  made  yourself 
obnoxious  to  me,  I  would  kick  you  through  that 
window." 

"  I  ain'  meanin'  nuttin-'  'tall,  Gen'l,  by  nuttin'  I 
done  say,  dat  I  ain'." 

"  Then  you  be  careful." 

Silence  occupied  the  Presence  chamber  for  an 
appreciable  time;  then  Mr.  Brown,  a  diplomat  as 
well  as  an  orator,  diverted  the  attention  of  the 
enemy,  firing  from  a  vantage  point. 

"  Harmony,  the  gift  of  Heaven,  holds  us  en 
thralled  in  at  least  one  particular.  We  all  agree, 
sir,  that  John  Randolph  Harrison  was  a  fool  when 
he  sold  his  property — all  sorts  and  conditions  of  a 
fool.  There  are  we  harmonious." 

"Dat's  so;  dat's  sholy  so." 

"  He  ain't  no  farmer  nohow." 

Then  the  general  gave  the  gentlemen  from  Salem 
further  assurances  of  his  political  regard  for  them. 

Mr.  Buck  Johnson  received  permission  to  array 
himself  in  senatorial  toga,  as  he  deserved  an  enlarge 
ment  of  his  reward.  He  had  talked  to  negroes 
throughout  the  southwest,  until  now  his  oratory 
bloomed  in  the  garden  where  blossomed  the  flowers 
of  Dr.  Berkeley's  speech. 

"  Not  only  have  I  advocated  your  nomination, 
Mr.  Jones,  but  I  have  told  Harrison  and  Temple 
that  you,  of  all  men  in  Virginia,  should  be  our  next 
governor.  Are  you  not  the  Father  of  Readjust 
ment?  Virginia  owes  more  to  you  than  she  does 
to  any  other  living  man." 

"Then   I   have  been  misinformed,   General,   and 


298  THE    BETRAYAL 

the  reports  that  have  reached  me  from  the  Eastern 
Shore,  to  the  effect  that  you  advocate  the  nomination 
of  Temple,  are  as  false  as  those  that  have  come  to 
me  from  Warrenton — that  you  support  Harrison's 
candidacy." 

"  Mr.  Harrison  is  not  even  a  candidate,  while  I 
have  other  plans  for  Temple.  Besides,  the  reck 
lessness  of  those  two  young  men  in  the  sale  by  the 
one  and  the  purchase  by  the  other  of  Harrison's 
property  has  seriously  impaired  their  standing  with 
the  plain  people." 

"As  to  Harrison,  General,  you  are  mistaken;  he 
never  was  stronger  than  now.  I  am  sure  that  the 
plain  people  agree  with  me  in  believing  that  those 
young  men  have  played  the  game  of  politics  accord 
ing  to  the  rules.  Harrison's  play  was  brilliant;  but 
Temple  called  checkmate  when  he  bought  the  prop 
erty." 

"  I  shall  do  what  I  can  for  you,  Dr.  Jones,  I  can 
assure  you." 

The  parson  was  satisfied  when  he  left  the  gen 
eral,  who  had  thrust  his  hand  into  the  pocket  of 
the  sacerdotal  robe  and  picked  out  of  it  the  leader 
ship  of  the  Readjuster  movement.  Rather  the  par 
son  was  as  well  satisfied  as  a  man  can  be  when  the 
thief  who  has  picked  his  pocket  later  treats  the  vic 
tim  with  condescension. 

"You  never  looked  more  like  my  old  friend  John 
Harrison  than  you  do  now.  I  remember  how  he 
came  to  me  a  few  weeks  after  the  Surrender.  'We 
have  nothing  left,  Timothy,  but  honour,'  he  said. 
Then  he  paused,  and  his  eyes  lit  up  as  he  continued, 
'No;  I  have  John,  the  youngest  of  my  sons.'  He 


THE    BETRAYAL  299 

had  you  and  honour  and  the  Inglewood  lands — 
nothing  more.  Now  he  has  gone  where  I  must  soon 
go;  but  before  I  cross  the  River  of  Destiny,  never 
to  return,  I  wish  to  see  John  Harrison's  son  gov 
ernor  of  Virginia,  and  the  honour  of  Virginia  in  his 
keeping." 

"  General  Murphy,  I  thank  you.  Your  affection 
for  my  father  touches  me  deeply.  Undoubtedly  he 
must  have  held  you  in  high  regard,  although  I  never 
heard  him  refer  to  the  friendship  that  existed  be 
tween  you  and  him.  As  to  the  governorship,  I  wish 
to  be  neither  nominated  nor  elected,  for  reasons 
purely  personal;  but  were  I  differently  situated,  still 
I  would  say  that  you  or  Mr.  Jones  or  one  of  a  score 
of  others  should  receive  the  nomination.  My  serv 
ice  to  the  cause  consists  of  one  month  of  my  time, 
while  you  and  Mr.  Jones  and  many  others  have 
borne  the  heat  and  burden  of  the  battle  for  several 
years,  and  many  have  passed  their  entire  lives  in 
Virginia's  service.  You,  for  example,  fought  in  her 
armies  for  four  years.  You,  sir,  deserve  the  nomi 
nation." 

"  Ah,  Mr.  Harrison,  but  you  do  not  remember 
your  magnificent  lesson  in  patriotism — the  sale  of 
Inglewood,  your  ancestral  home,  and  the  gift  of  all 
your  real  and  personal  property  to  Virginia's  cred 
itors." 

"  General,  you  offered  your  life  as  well  as  your 
fortune  when  you  drew  your  sword  in  'sixty- 
one." 

"  I  am  too  old,  Mr.  Harrison.  Duty  may  call  me 
to  Washington,  as  senator,  and  I  shall  go,  if  it  does; 
but  I  shall  insist  upon  your  nomination.  Mr.  Jones 
is  an  excellent  man,  but  he  would  not  make  a  satis- 


300  THE    BETRAYAL 

factory  governor;  nor  would  Temple.  If  you  are 
nominated,  you  must  accept — for  the  honour  of 
Virginia." 

The  general's  tones  were  those  of  a  commander 
who  would  not  brook  disobedience.  He  continued: 

"  Our  funds  are  insufficient  to  conduct  this  cam 
paign  properly.  '  Heaven  only  knows  where  we 
shall  get  money,'  I  was  saying  the  other  day;  but 
Heaven  did  know,  for  a  few  hours  later  I  heard 
that  you  had  agreed  to  give  your  wealth  to  our 
cause.  The  debt  must  be  paid.  But  your  mite  will 
not  pay  it.  Yet  it  will  greatly  help  to  pay  it,  for 
it  will  help  to  elect  the  Readjuster  party,  and  that 
party  will  pay  the  debt.  Ah,  Mr.  Harrison,  God  is 
with  us  in  this  campaign.  Please  let  me  have  your 
cheque  at  once." 

"  Why,  General,  I  have  already  paid  the  money 
to  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society,  of  Warrenton." 

"  Then,  Harrison,  I  shall  write  to  the  ladies  im 
mediately,  asking  them  to  use  your  money  to  start 
a  Readjuster  fund,  to  be  used  by  them,  and  I  will 
forward  my  cheque  for  as  much  as  I  can  afford  with 
my  letter.  But  I  am  a  poor  man.  The  years  that 
have  passed  since  the  war  have  been  years  of  strug 
gle,  and  beyond  enough  to  support  my  family  in  a 
modest  way,  I  have  nothing." 

The  general  did  not  remember  the  twenty-five 
thousand  dollars  a  year  that  he  drew  as  president 
of  a  railroad  controlled  by  Virginia,  the  Atlantic, 
Mississippi  and  Ohio, — a  salary  obtained  by  him 
from  a  corrupt  legislature. 

"  General  Murphy,  I  am  no  fool.  Here  and  now 
I  wish  you  to  tell  me  in  unmistakable  words,  do  you 


THE    BETRAYAL  301 

support  my  candidacy,  or  do  you  advocate  the  nomi 
nation  of  some  other  man?" 

"  I  do  not  like  the  tone  in  which  you  address  me. 
I  have  told  you,  Captain  Temple, — emphatically 
told  you, — more  than  once  that  you  are  my  choice, 
as  I  believe  that  you  are  the  choice  of  the  majority 
of  the  people  of  this  state.  My  word  is  accepted 
in  Virginia,  wherever  it  is  given.  I  should  say  no 
more;  but  I  will  add  that  only  this  very  day  I  said 
to  Mr.  Tanner  that  you  have  had  and  shall  continue 
to  have  my  support.  You  are  the  man  for  the  place, 
so  I  shall  do  all  in  my  power  to  make  you  the  next 
governor  of  Virginia." 

"  I  can  ask  no  more,  General  Murphy,  and  I  ask 
no  more;  but  why  in  the  devil  do  the  people  of 
Warrenton  say  that  you  support  Harrison,  and  why 
in  the  devil  do  the  people  in  the  southwest  say  that 
you  are  for  Jones?" 

"When  you  are  well  seasoned  in  politics,  Captain, 
you  will  disregard  the  statements  that  are  made  by 
the  friends  of  competing  candidates." 

Neither  said  anything  for  a  moment.  General 
Murphy  was  first  to  speak. 

"  I  said  to  Mr.  Tanner  this  morning,  'Yes,  Judge, 
Temple  is  a  clever  young  man.'  Then  I  did  not 
know  how  clever — how  very  clever.  You  came  to 
Richmond  this  morning.  You  should  have  come  the 
day  that  you  bought  Inglewood.  Here  you  are  with 
a  quarrel  in  your  mouth,  to  put  me  on  the  defensive. 
Good !  I  defended  the  Crater.  Now  I  ask  you,  Why 
did  you  buy  Inglewood?  Why  did  you  pay  no  more 
than  half  the  value  of  the  place?" 

"  General  Timothy  Murphy,  Hero  of  the  Crater, 
Father  of  Repudiation,  Brother  of  Readjustment, 


302  THE    BETRAYAL 

Creator  of  Elimination,  I  deny  your  right  to  ques 
tion  Jimmie  Temple,  the  little  school-boy.  But  no 
man  has  asked  me  a  question  that  I  am  unable  to 
answer.  Can  you  say  as  much?  I  bought  Ingle- 
wood  to  offset  the  effect  of  Harrison's  fool  play.  I 
paid  no  more  than  half  its  value  because  I  had  no 
more  to  pay.  Now  you  answer  this  question,  What 
have  you  done  with  the  money  that  I  paid  to  John 
Harrison?  " 

;'  Your  meaning  is  not  plain." 

"  I  never  expected  you  to  answer  the  question !  I 
mean  this:  You  had  your  hands  on  John  Harri 
son's  money  within  twenty-four  hours  of  the  time 
that  I  paid  the  auctioneer.  The  boy  is  a  weakling." 
'You  have  explained  your  meaning;  now  I  an 
swer  your  question:  all  the  money  that  I  have  re 
ceived  for  campaign  expenses  shall  be  used  to  fur 
ther  your  interests." 

"  General  Murphy,  I  am  glad  that  you  see.  I 
shall  be  the  next  governor  of  Virginia.  I  am  the 
only  man  in  our  party  that  can  be  elected:  you  know 
that  to  be  true.  Therefore  I  shall  receive  the  nomi 
nation,  and  I  shall  be  elected,  and  after  the  election 
I  shall  keep  my  promise — Timothy  Murphy  and 
James  Temple  jointly  shall  be  governor  of  Virginia. 
You  shall  make  the  laws — I  shall  sign  them." 

Captain  Temple  took  his  leave. 

"  The  next  governor  of  Virginia !  Bah !  Not 
while  Timothy  Murphy  lives.  But  you  are  right  in 
this :  you  would  be  an  excellent  candidate — were  you 
faithful  to  Murphy.  Virginia  is  not  large  enough 
to  hold  Timothy  Murphy  and  James  Temple — not 
by  a  great  deal.  I  shall  stay  in  Virginia." 


THE    BETRAYAL  303 

11  Virginia  is  not  large  enough  to  hold  James  Tem 
ple  and  Timothy  Murphy.  Virginia,  mine  own,  my 
native  land !  Here  is  where  Captain  Lancaster 
would  say,  '  Jimmie,  my  boy,  look  out  for  the  black 
horse.'  Murphy  has  no  dark  horse  for  this  race — 
except  himself.  Were  I  in  his  place  I  would  have 
some  injerrubber  baby  bouncing  on  my  Norfolk 
knee.  The  Murphy  eagle  eye  sleepeth. 

"  Governor  Temple — President  Temple — Mrs. 
Temple.  Ah,  Temple,  Temple,  your  Richmond 
dream  cometh  true !  Soon,  Lelia,  my  own  little 
Lelia,  you  will  be  at  home  when  I  call.  Dorothea 
Annabel  always  is  at  home,  where  she  will  stay. 
Not  good  enough  to  be  the  wife  of  the  President; 
too  damned  good  for  the  Simpsonses  and  the 
Stokeses.  But  so  I  have  said  many  times  and 
oft." 

•  •  •  •  • 

Pausing  every  few  hundred  yards  to  look  about, 
Judge  Braxton  approached  Hugh  White,  who  was 
working  in  one  of  his  fields  near  the  highway. 

"  Well,  Hugh,  I  have  been  inspecting  your  farm. 
You  are  a  model  farmer,  Hugh, — but  the  Braxtons 
never  had  better  tenants  than  the  Whites,  who  have 
always  treated  the  lands  that  they  rented  as  though 
they  were  their  own.  The  crops  are  in  excellent  con 
dition,  particularly  the  corn,  which  is  the  best  that  I 
have  seen  this  season." 

'Thank  you,  sir;  thank  you  kindly." 

"  How  is  your  mother,  Hugh?  Ah,  what  a  brave 
little  woman  she  was  1  White  was  in  my  command 
when  he  was  killed  at  Malvern  Hill,  and  a  braver 
soldier  never  went  down  before  an  enemy — down 
before  an  enemy,  but  up  to  a  throne  on  high.  Your 


304  THE    BETRAYAL 

mother  was  as  brave  as  your  father.     How  is  her 
health?" 

"  She  is  well,  sir.  We  talk  about  you  every  day, 
sir.  I  was  a  little  boy  when  father  was  killed,  but 
I  know  all  about  your  kindness  to  mother  and  me. 
I'll  never  forget,  sir;  no,  sir,  I'll  never  forget;  and, 
sir,  mother  will  never  forget." 

"A  mere  nothing,  a  mere  nothing;  what  I  did 
for  your  mother  and  you  cost  me  very  little — time 
or  money.  You  both  have  repaid  me  over  and  over 
again.  Ah,  here  comes  young  Mr.  Tom  Tazewell, 
who  may  have  something  to  say  to  you,  so  I  will 
walk  along.  But  before  I  go  I  wish  to  say  that 
Lucy  Christian  is  a  fine  young  woman." 

"  I  think  so,  sir.  I  think  she  is  the  finest  young 
woman  I  have  ever  known,  sir.  There  never  was  a 
young  woman  so  fine,  sir,  I  think,  and  mother  thinks 
so  too." 

"Quite  right;  quite  right.  Your  mother  should 
have  some  young  woman  to  help  her  take  care  of 
the  place.  She  thinks  a  great  deal  of  Lucy;  she 
told  me  so  herself — a  motherly  sort  of  girl,  she 
says." 

'Yes,  sir;  she  is  a  motherly  sort  of  girl,  sir.  She 
is  the  finest  motherly  sort  of  girl  I  ever  saw,  sir." 

During  this  interview  White  had  stood  erect,  not 
leaning  on  his  hoe,  and  all  the  while  his  hat  was  in 
his  hand. 

'  Yes,  sir,  Mr.  Tazewell,  these  crops  are  growing, 
as  the  judge  says.  He  is  a  fine  man,  sir,  the  judge 
is.  Mother  and  I  think  that  there  never  was  but 
one  man  that  ever  lived  that  was  so  fine  as  the  judge 
— and  He  wasn't  a  man." 


THE    BETRAYAL  305 

"He  is  the  salt  of  the  earth,  Hugh.  ...  Do 
you  think  that  Sam  Kelly  is  going  to  be  elected  in 
his  stead?" 

"Yes,  sir,  Mr.  Tazewell,  I  do." 

"And  so  do  I,  Hugh.  My  God,  Hugh! — what 
does  it  all  mean?  Sam  Kelly,  who  has  been  twice 
indicted  for  crime,  who  knows  no  more  about  law 
than  he  does  about  the  Bible,  who  is  the  meanest 
man  in  Warrenton,  is  to  take  the  place  of  one  of 
the  ablest  jurists  ever  born  in  this  commonwealth ! 
What  does  it  mean,  what  can  it  mean,  Hugh?" 

"  Social  equality,  Mr.  Tazewell,  that's  what  it 
means,  sir.  Sam  Kelly  and  Andy  Stover  and  Jim 
Rice  think  that  they  are  as  good  as  anybody  else.  I 
try  to  do  my  part,  just  as  the  judge  tries  to  do  his 
part,  and  I  don't  see  why  any  man  wants  a  place  in 
life  that  doesn't  belong  to  him.  No,  sir,  I  don't  see 
why  a  man  should  want  a  class  that's  not  his  any 
more  than  he  should  want  a  pocketbook  that's  not 
his." 

"  We  will  try  to  keep  every  man  in  his  place, 
Hugh." 

"  Yes,  sir.     I'll  do  my  part — or  I'll  try  to,  sir." 

As  the  young  aristocrat  went  on  his  way  the  young 
yeoman  bowed  respectfully.  The  salutation  was 
properly  acknowledged  by  the  affectionate  tone  in 
which  the  young  aristocrat  said  the  word  good-bye, 
followed  by  a  bow  which  seemed  to  say,  "  I  respect 
you  as  much  as  you  respect  me."  Not  until  Taze 
well  had  left  did  the  young  yeoman  put  on  his  hat. 

Judge  Braxton  had  greatly  encouraged  Hugh 
White.  Indeed,  the  heart  of  the  lover  had  been  so 
invigorated  by  the  judge's  words  that  the  night  of 


306  THE    BETRAYAL 

the  day  that  they  had  been  spoken — wash-night — he 
went  to  see  his  lady-love.  Lucy,  greatly  astonished, 
received  him.  All  her  brothers  and  sisters  were  in 
the  kitchen,  as  usual,  and  so  was  a  big  cedar  clothes- 
tub,  which  was  in  the  middle  of  the  room,  filled  with 
water.  About  that  tub  was  a  stack  of  towels,  one 
washrag,  and  a  big  cake  of  home-made  soap. 

Pretty  Lucy,  her  face  a-fire,  led  her  admirer  into 
the  musty  parlour.  All  the  little  Christians  below 
her  seventeen  years  followed  them,  then  arranged 
themselves  about  the  man  and  maiden  after  the  man 
ner  of  the  Rice  children— "  which  am  ter  say,"  after 
the  manner  of  the  children  of  all  yeomen  and  peas 
ant  families,  and  after  the  manner  of  the  children 
of  some  gentlefolk.  Papa  Christian  stayed  in  the 
kitchen,  his  back  to  the  tub,  reading  the  Richmond 
Dispatch. 

Promptly  at  half-past  seven,  soon  after  Hugh's 
arrival,  Mrs.  Christian  opened  the  parlour  door 
about  a  foot,  stuck  her  head  through  the  opening, 
and  uttered  one  word — the  name  Lev.  For  several 
minutes  thereafter  the  sound  of  the  one-year-old 
baby's  voice  was  heard  crying,  as  his  mother  pulled 
his  ears  and  his  hair  and  put  soap  into  his  eyes — 
all  amid  the  sound  of  many  waters.  Eleven  times 
did  Mrs.  Christian  open  the  parlour  door  and  pro 
nounce  a  single  name,  and  eleven  times  was  heard 
the  surging  of  waters,  fainter  and  fainter,  until  the 
sound  almost  died  away,  when  sixteen-year-old  Sally 
went  into  the  kitchen  and  her  father  went  to  bed. 
The  while  Hugh  was  red  and  pretty  Lucy  was  scar 
let.  Never  had  Lucy  been  so  talkative.  Never  had 
Hugh  been  so  silent. 

About  ten  o'clock  the  ardent  lover  summoned  all 


THE    BETRAYAL  307 

his  courage — the  courage  that  had  been  stimulated 
by  Judge  Braxton,  and  which  now  equalled  that  of 
a  convent  girl. 

"  Judge  Braxton  says  you  are  a  very  fine  girl." 

"  Don't  talk  that  way  to  me,  Hugh." 

"  I  think  you  are  a  very  fine  girl — too." 

"You  hear  me,  now!" 

"  Mother  thinks  you  are  a  fine  girl — she  said  so 
to  the  judge — and  to  me." 

"  I'm  nothing  much." 

"  Lucy,  you  are — you  are." 

Then  Hugh  found  his  tongue — the  tongue  of  the 
Virginian  lover,  which  knows  no  class.  He  knelt  at 
Lucy's  feet;  he  took  one  of  her  hands  in  both  his; 
he  looked  into  her  eyes,  and  his  eyes  never  left  hers 
from  the  time  he  first  looked  into  them  until  he  left 
her. 

"Honey  child,  liT  Lucy  love,  honey;  HT  Lucy, 
honey  love,  I  love  you — won't  you  be  my  wife? — I 
love  you.  LiT  Lucy  love,  liT  honey  love,  I  love 
you." 

She  snatched  away  her  hand. 

"  No,  no,  no !    Oh,  my !  oh,  my !  " 

Then  pretty  Lucy  buried  her  tear-strewn  face  in 
the  sofa  pillow  and  cried  some  happy  tears.  At  first 
Hugh  was  alarmed;  but  he  soon  took  her  hand 
again,  which  he  gently  stroked — the  hand  which  was 
now  left  passively  in  his.  We  think  Lucy  did  not 
tire  of  the  fond  words  that  Hugh  said  over  and 
over  again — his  love-making  words. 

"Honey  liT  child,  I  love  you;  liT  Lucy,  honey 
love,  I  love  you;  liT  Lucy,  honey  love,  I  love  you, 
HT  child;  I  love  you,  liT  Lucy,  honey  love." 

There  is  no  consonant  in  the  Virginian  language 


308  THE    BETRAYAL 

of  love,  which  is  as  soft  and  purring  as  the  breezes 
of  the  night  as  they  gently  flutter  the  petals  of  the 
rose. 

•  •  •  •  • 

"  Shet  up !  Shet  up,  I  say !  Shet  yo'  black  moufs, 
you  ebony-skinned  niggers!  De  boss  Readjuster's 
gwine  ter  hole  down  de  platform.  Shet  up  1  " 

Thus  the  sergeant-at-arms  issued  his  commands 
to  the  turbulent  members  of  the  Readjuster  conven 
tion. 

Your  narrators  will  now  reproduce  the  exact  lan 
guage  that  the  great  leader  himself  spoke  as  he 
addressed  the  convention: 

"Gentlemen,  you  are  here  today  to  give  effect  to  the  broad 
principles  of  equal  rights,  of  a  free  ballot,  and  an  honest 
count ;  you  are  here  to  give  effect  to  your  determination  to 
free  the  people — all  the  people  of  this  State,  to  turn  your 
faces  toward  the  rising  sun  and  keep  step  with  the  music  of 
the  Union.  I  say  it  is  your  purpose  to  restore  the  old  state 
to  friendly  relations  to  all  sections  of  this  common  country. 
Allow  me  to  beg  of  you  to  have  harmony  in  your  proceed 
ings.  I  doubt  not  that  there  will  be  harmony.  To  whom 
soever  you  shall  place  your  banner,  stand  as  one  man  to  that 
banner — backing  up  your  leader  in  the  great  fight  which  is 
to  make  your  freedom  and  the  freedom  of  your  posterity." 

Major  Volaski  Vaiden,  of  New  Kent  county,  now 
rose.  Your  narrators  use  his  words,  merely  substi 
tuting  the  name  of  Parson  Jones  for  the  name  of 
the  clergyman  that  the  major  placed  in  nomination. 

"  The  common  destiny  and  the  common  good  demand  that 
we  should  stand  together  as  a  band  of  brothers.  We  should 
choose  that  one  who,  by  experience  both  in  the  council  and 
the  field,  has  proven  himself  the  hero  in  the  fight  that  is 


THE     BETRAYAL  309 

upon  us.  Whilst  I  have  all  the  tender  regards  for  the 
younger  brother,  still  the  reversion  to  the  firstborn  should 
overweigh  that  consideration :  '  Not  that  I  love  Caesar 
less,  but  Rome  more.'  And  I  would  say  to  these  younger 
men  in  the  cause  of  Readjustment,  as  Edward  III  said  to 
the  Black  Prince  at  the  Battle  of  Crecy — 'They  must 
win  their  spurs  in  the  coming  conflict.'  I  name  the  Hon 
ourable  and  the  Reverend  John  Henry  Jones." 

Then,  like  a  black  cloud  with  a  silvery  lining,  rose 
the  Parson's  followers: 

"  Jones !    Jones !    Jones !    Jones !  " 

"  Seems  to  me  I've  heard  that  name  before,"  said 
Captain  Lancaster,  who  had  gone  to  Richmond,  and 
who  had  succeeded  in  gaining  admittance  to  the  gal 
lery  in  the  old  Richmond  Theatre,  where  the  con 
vention  was  held. 

The  building  was  decorated  inside  and  outside 
with  flags  of  all  nations — except  Virginia.  The 
stars  and  stripes,  the  chief  decoration,  shrouded  the 
stage.  Ominously  the  bunting  fluttered  in  the 
draught. 

Colonel  Joseph  P.  Minetree  rose.  Your  narra 
tors  report  his  words  as  they  were  spoken,  save  for 
the  name  of  Harrison,  and  save  for  a  reference  to 
the  mayor  of  Warrenton  that  was  made  by  Colonel 
Minetree. 

"  Our  governor  should  be  no  half-hearted  man,  who  sniffs 
the  battle  from  afar.  Let  us  see  to  it  that  no  carpet  warrior 
is  our  champion.  See  to  it  that  he  is  a  man  of  courage  and 
ability,  that  iron  nerve  is  combined  with  silvery  tongue;  that 
possessing  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  our  Readjuster  hosts, 
he  commands  the  respect  of  our  enemies. 

"  But,  Gentlemen  of  the  Convention,  to  me  has  fallen  the 
task  combining  high,  pleasurable  emotion  with  stern  duty, 


310  THE    BETRAYAL 

to  present  to  you  the  name  of  a  distinguished  citizen,  who, 
though  young  in  years,  has  made  his  name  a  household  word 
from  the  mountain  to  the  sea,  whom  Warrenton  delights  to 
honour,  and  of  whom  the  whole  State  delights  to  boast.  I 
wish  I  had  the  graces  of  a  Webster,  or  the  fiery  utterances 
of  a  Clay;  then  could  I  justly  present  him  to  you,  and  in  fit 
ting  language  exhibit  my  beau-ideal  of  a  standard-bearer. 

"His  ready  pen  has  made  a  name  for  him  among  all  the 
leaders  of  public  opinion  in  the  country,  and  his  eloquent 
utterances  and  superb  diction  have  placed  him  in  the  front 
ranks  of  his  country's  orators.  His  manly  bearing  has  won 
from  friends  and  exacted  from  foes  a  hearty  respect,  and  in 
defiance  of  all  combinations  and  despite  all  the  forces  his 
enemies  may  bring  against  him,  his  banner  will  never  trail 
in  dishonoured  defeat. 

"Mr.  Chairman,  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Convention,  I 
have  the  honour  to  present  the  name  of  John  Randolph 
Harrison,  of  Warrenton,  a  gentleman  of  whom  any  party 
might  well  be  proud — the  distinguished  writer,  poet,  orator, 
and  statesman,  and  I  bespeak  for  his  claims  your  generous 
consideration." 

The  applause  seemed  to  Captain  Lancaster  to 
have  been  equally  distributed  between  the  two  men 
whose  names  had  been  placed  in  nomination.  Tem 
ple's  name  when  offered  to  the  convention  did  not 
arouse  nearly  so  much  enthusiasm. 

The  Reverend  Doctor  Shadrach  Meshech  Abed- 
nego  Berkeley  and  the  Reverend  Joshua  Williams 
were  members  of  the  Fauquier  delegation;  Mr.  Buck 
Johnson  was  one  of  the  delegates  that  represented 
Roanoke  county;  Mr.  George  Washington  (the 
negro's  real  name)  was  a  Charles  City  county  rep 
resentative.  These  statesmen  attended  the  caucus 
that  was  held  by  the  negro  delegates  before  the 
convention  convened.  Twelve  hundred  separate 


THE    BETRAYAL  311 

breaths  constituted  the  voice  of  the  people  as  rep 
resented  by  the  Readjuster  convention.  Of  these, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  were  negro  fumes. 

Mr.  Johnson  made  known  his  views  as  he  had 
already  expressed  them  to  General  Murphy.  Har 
mony  did  not  prevail  in  the  caucus,  for  while  all 
the  one  hundred  and  fifty  statesmen  who  were  some 
what  nearer  their  anthropoid  ancestors  of  the  simian 
family  tree  than  their  degenerate  brethren  agreed 
that  the  next  governor  of  Virginia  should  be  of  the 
blood  nearest  the  blood,  each  member  of  the  species 
believed  himself  to  be  that  creature. 

Mr.  Washington  called  attention  to  his  name. 
The  day  was  to  come  when  Mr.  Samuel  L.  Clemens, 
a  notable  traducer  of  the  peoples  of  the  southern 
states,  who  has  wisely  concealed  his  name,  using  the 
pseudonym  of  Mark  Twain  instead,  was  to  intro 
duce  Mr.  Booker  T.  Washington,  his  dear  friend, 
to  a  New  York  audience  as  the  greatest  of  all  south 
ern  men,  excepting  only  the  original  Washington — 
the  ancestor  of  parvenus,  sometimes  called  the 
Father  of  his  Country. 

Mr.  Page  advised  moderation.  What,  said  he, 
is  the  use  of  this  wrangling?  No  coloured  gentleman 
will  receive  the  nomination.  But  Mr.  Johnson  con 
tinued  to  demand  that  his  name  be  offered  to  the 
convention.  That  gentleman  was  a  politician  as 
well  as  a  statesman.  He  foresaw  that  General  Mur 
phy  would  consider  the  patriot  that  would  be  offered 
to  the  convention  by  the  negroes  to  be  the  negro 
leader. 

As  no  statesman  in  the  caucus  other  than  Mr. 
Johnson  was  a  politician,  the  decision  was  reached 
that  Dr.  Berkeley  should  offer  Mr.  Johnson's  name 


312  THE     BETRAYAL 

to  the  convention.  Fortunately  for  Dr.  Berkeley's 
permanent  reputation  as  an  orator  he  had  listened 
intently  to  the  nominating  speeches  of  Major  Vaiden 
and  Colonel  Minetree.  But  was  his  normal  oratory 
inferior  to  theirs? 

"  Gemmen  ob  Colour  an'  Dem  as  am  Weather- 
wise:  De  day  have  arriv  when  de  cullud  vote'll 
substantiate  dis  state;  an',  as  er  member  ob  dat 
colossal  race,  I  rises  ter  place  befo'  yo'  consideratum 
er  name  dat  none  dat  celerbrates  de  Ian'  ob  liberty 
will  eber  be  able  ter  subrogate.  De  man  dat  byahs 
de  name  dat  I's  erbout  ter  pronunciate  am  de  ultimos' 
ob  he  race.  He  parences  foreknowed  he'd  be  de 
ultimos',  an'  dey  called  him  Buck,  cayse  er  buck  am 
de  swif'est  ob  all  creation.  Agin,  he  subname  am 
Johnsin'.  All  de  Johnsonses  in  dis  state  will  stuff 
de  ballot-boxes  wid  dyah  'ristercratic  clognonimous 
ter  stationise  one  ob  demselves  in  de  'Zectual  Man- 
chen,  an'  already  I  deceive  dat  'squisite  name  ob 
Johnsin'  prescribed  in  de  flowers  ob  de  Good  Book 
ob  gubermorial  'membrances.  'Harmony!'  says  de 
leader.  '  Aman ! '  says  me,  an'  we  ken  all  harmo 
nise  an'  fratricise  on  de  name  I's  gwine  ter  capitu 
late.  I  hab  de  honour  ter  place  befo'  you  gemmen 
de  name  ob  Mistah  Buck  Johnsin',  ob  Roanoke 
county,  an'  I  'ques'  fo'  him  yo'  kindes'  detention 
an'  yo'  prejudicial  presdaments." 

Mr.  Johnson  did  not  get  the  nomination,  but  he 
did  receive  one  hundred  and  fifty  votes,  and  his  im 
portance,  already  great  because  of  his  senatorial  can 
didacy,  was  greatly  increased. 

Among  the  delegates  to  the  convention  were  Mr. 
Andy  Stover,  in  his  state  of  perpetual  intoxication; 
Dr.  Reginald  Launcelot  Rice,  ditto;  Mr.  Samuel  A. 


THE     BETRAYAL  313 

Tanner,  also  ditto;  Mr.  James  P.  Rice,  and  Mr. 
Fletcher. 

No  sooner  had  Dr.  Berkeley  taken  his  seat  than 
Dr.  Reginald  Launcelot  was  recognised  by  the  chair. 
The  gentleman  rose  to  place  his  own  name  in  nomi 
nation  for  president  of  the  University  of  Virginia. 
There  was  no  such  office  then;  but  the  time  came 
when  such  an  office  was  established,  and  one  Edwin 
A.  Alderman,  no  Virginian,  but  a  typical  present- 
day  Tar-heel,  was  made  the  first  president  of  the 
University  of  Virginia.  That  Dr.  Alderman  was 
the  proper  man  to  be  elected  the  first  president  of 
that  institution  we  can  not  doubt,  for  did  not  the 
founder  of  that  university  say  that  all  men  are  cre 
ated  equal?  How  the  choice  of  the  people  would 
have  delighted  Jefferson! 

The  nineteenth  annual  dinner  of  the  New  York 
Southern  Society  was  held  in  the  Waldorf-Astoria, 
December  14,  1904.  Dr.  Edwin  A.  Alderman,  first 
president  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  addressed 
the  society  on  "  The  Extreme  Need  of  the  South," 
his  address  being  published  in  full  in  the  New  York 
Southern  Society  Year  Book,  1904-1905.  He  said, 
in  part: 

We  have  been  told  about  a  million  times  since  1870  that 
this  was  a  re-united  country  .  .  .  yet  it  would  be 
a  superficial  and  confused  man  that  does  not  see  that 
there  are  sections  in  this  country  made  so  by  the  memories 
of  their  civil  story.  You  can  tell  a  New  Englander 
when  you  hear  him;  you  can  tell  a  Southerner  when  you 
hear  him,  and  sometimes  you  can  tell  a  good  Westerner 
when  you  see  him,  and  yet  the  Nation  is  one  Nation. 

Having  thus  obtained  some  relief,  the  good  doctor 


3H  THE    BETRAYAL 

continued  to  purge  himself,  telling  what  "  this  Union 
of  ours  symbolises"  to  his  mind: 

Ladies  and  gentlemen,  this  Union  of  ours  symbolises  to 
my  mind  the  most  hopeful  thing  to  be  seen  in  any  land, 
namely:  Democracy  trying  to  be  right,  and  efficient  and 
powerful,  at  the  same  time  just  and  free.  That  is  the 
extreme  task  of  civilised  man  and  the  most  dramatic  and 
heart-searching  thing  to  be  seen  in  this  Union,  to  me,  is 
the  effort  of  its  Southern  portion  to  recover  the  National 
spirit,  the  liberalism  of  thought  and  the  enthusiasm  in  trade 
which  distinguished  it  one  hundred  years  ago,  which  it  lost, 
when  it  got  caught  in  a  misconception  imposed  upon  it  by 
the  moral  callousness  of  past  ages.  [Great  applause.] 

We  would  tire  you,  gentle  reader,  were  we  to 
quote  a  great  deal  of  President  Alderman's  address. 
Again,  we  are  not  always  able  to  understand  the 
peculiar  English  (  ?)  that  he  uses.  However,  you 
may  be  interested  in  an  example  of  the  esteem  in 
which  he  holds  the  men  who  fought  for  the  preser 
vation  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  states,  so  we  will 
quote  just  a  line  more.  We  take  the  president  of 
the  southern  confederation  as  an  example: 

Jefferson  Davis  is  not  often  quoted  in  great  gatherings 
in  this  country.  He  cannot  be  said  to  be  a  popular  mem 
ory.  His  name  and  his  figure  somehow  loom  up  unpleas 
antly  in  the  midst  of  old  passions,  stern  and  unbending. 

Mrs.  Livingston  R.  Schuyler,  now  a  resident  of 
New  York  City,  chairman  of  a  committee  of  the 
United  Daughters  of  the  Confederacy,  and  the 
ladies  of  her  committee,  appointed  Dr.  Edwin  A. 


THE    BETRAYAL  315 

Alderman  president  of  the  University  of  Virginia; 
Dr.  C.  Alphonso  Smith,  then  professor  of  English 
in  the  University  of  North  Carolina,  and  Dr.  John 
H.  Finley,  president  of  the  College  of  the  City  of 
New  York,  as  judges  of  the  merits  of  essays  to  be 
submitted  in  competition,  the  reward,  a  prize  offered 
by  the  Daughters;  the  occasion,  the  centenary  of 
General  Robert  E.  Lee,  1907.  The  judges  awarded 
the  prize  to  Miss  Christine  Boyson,  who  gave  her 
residence  as  Minnesota.  Her  paper  was  entitled, 
Robert  E.  Lee — A  Present  Estimate.  Your  nar 
rators  quote  from  her  paper  as  follows: 

Intellectually  the  South  was  practically  dead.  Most 
of  the  people  were  densely  ignorant.  .  .  .  To  do 
now  what  he  [General  Lee]  did  then  would  be  treason,  for 
the  Civil  War  has  since  taught  what  is  right  in  this  re 
gard.  .  .  .  We  shall  have  come  to  think  of  Lee  as 
the  English  did  of  Washington.  .  .  .  For,  indeed, 
he  differed  from  the  great  Washington  only  in  choosing 
the  wrong  side.  ...  In  a  country  where  the  mass 
of  the  people  accepted  ready-made  opinions,  misconceptions 
carried  ideas  forward  and  made  false  maxims  seem  work 
ing  principles,  so  that  before  1860  the  people  in  general 
believed  they  had  a  right  to  secede.  .  .  .  Were  he 
[General  Lee]  merely  a  Southerner  his  conduct  might  be 
defensible;  but  he  was  the  son  of  a  Revolutionary  officer; 
he  held  a  position  of  honour  in  the  Union  army;  through 
his  wife  he  was  connected  with  the  Washington  family; 
back  of  him  stretched  a  long  line  of  heroic  souls,  the  pride 
and  boast  of  Virginia. 

Gentle  reader,  Dr.  Alderman  and  Dr.  Smith,  in 
their  defence,  pleaded  the  literary  values  of  this  his 
torical  paper;  yet  the  literary  values  were  not  so 


3i6  THE    BETRAYAL 

great  as  those  contained  in  the  average  composition 
of  a  child  of  ten. 

Dr.  Smith  now  conducts  an  important  department 
in  the  University  of  Virginia  under  the  watchful  eye 
of  his  countryman,  Dr.  Alderman. 

Virginians,  to  what  a  pass  have  you  let  Virginia 
come! 

After  Dr.  Reginald  Launcelot  had  nominated 
himself,  Mr.  Stover,  very,  very  drunk,  rose  to  sec 
ond  the  nomination. 

"  'Pudiate,  I  says;  'pudiate  an'  'liminate  evvy 
t'ing!" 

Doctor  Berkeley  touched  him  on  the  shoulder. 

"  Ebrything's  be'n  'liminated,  A-nd-y,  'cep'in1 
'Liminators,  an' " 

Whereupon  Dr.  Berkeley  was  himself  eliminated, 
and  did  not  regain  consciousness  for  several  hours. 
Mighty  was  the  smith. 

The  Irish  peasant,  Timothy  Murphy,  did  have  an 
india-rubber  baby  bouncing  on  his  Norfolk  knee.  He 
had  an  india-rubber  baby  bouncing  on  his  Valley 
knee  also,  but  before  the  convention  convened 
neither  Parson  Jones  nor  Captain  Temple  knew 
about  the  increase  in  the  general's  elastic  family. 
The  time  came  when  Mr.  Jones  thought  his  battle 
won. 

About  the  same  time  Captain  Temple  was  frantic. 
His  name  had  been  offered  to  the  convention,  but  he 
knew  that  the  general  had  presented  him  to  the 
delegates  as  a  green  apple.  Still  he  planned  to  cap 
ture  the  nomination  by  assault.  He  would  turn 
upon  his  wily  foe  and  deliver  a  blow  upon  the 


THE    BETRAYAL  317 

leader's  jaw  that  would  knock  him  out — out  of  Vir 
ginia. 

Now,  Timothy  Murphy  preferred  Harrison  to 
Temple.  He  believed  Harrison  to  be  honest,  hence 
dangerous;  but  the  young  man,  although  honest,  he 
believed  to  be  a  fool,  therefore  he  might  be  able  to 
lead  him  until  he  could  kill  him  politically  or  cir 
cumvent  him.  Neither  Jones  nor  Temple  should 
receive  the  nomination.  First  the  general  would 
nominate  his  Norfolk  baby,  then  his  Valley  off 
spring.  If  neither  of  those  dark  horses  could  win, 
he  would  deliver  their  votes  to  Harrison,  then  offer 
Timothy  Murphy  to  the  convention.  Later  his  own 
votes  in  addition  to  those  of  his  children  would  be 
delivered  to  Harrison,  who  would  be  nominated. 

And  he  was. 

Captain  Temple  entered  the  Presence. 

'Timothy  Murphy,  now  the  thief  has  his  day! 
Having  gathered  about  you  all  the  thieves  that  were 
in  Virginia,  you  made  honest  men  thieves,  and  these 
you  have  organised  into  a  society — the  Murphy 
association.  No  thief  was  too  mean  for  you,  as 
your  convention  proved.  In  that  assemblage  was 
the  black  thief,  who  had  just  robbed  his  master's 
barnyard;  there  was  the  white  thief,  who  had  just 
taken  his  hand  out  of  his  neighbour's  pocket;  there 
was  the  great  thief,  who  would  repudiate  the  public 
debt;  there  was  the  greatest  thief,  who  would  steal 
for  his  own  use  the  forty-seven  million  dollars  that 
belong  to  the  creditors.  Timothy  Murphy,  there  is 
one  thief  in  Virginia  who  deservedly  is  the  master 
of  all  other  thieves,  for  in  him  are  the  elements  of 
all  the  thieves  of  Thiefdom.  That  man  is  Timothy 


318  THE    BETRAYAL 

Murphy.  How  do  I  know?  I  shall  tell  you  frankly 
• — I  know  because  I  am  one  of  your  thieves." 

"James  Temple,  the  vanquished  man  never  sees 
in  his  conqueror  a  force  superior  to  his  own.  Unlike 
other  helpless  babes,  he  does  not  sit  down  and  weep 
bitter  tears,  but  attempts  to  justify  himself,  and  to 
excuse  himself  to  the  world,  through  vituperation 
and  false  statements.  He  erects  a  structure  of  pre 
tence,  and  in  that  mirror-house  he  sees  himself  re 
flected,  until  his  sense  of  proportion  becomes  as  mean 
as  himself. 

''  You  say  that  you  are  a  thief.  I  think  that  you 
are  an  honourable  gentleman,  at  present  suffering 
from  a  gentle  lapse  in  breeding,  caused  by  defeat. 
Now,  I  was  not  in  the  least  responsible  for  your  fail 
ure  to  receive  the  nomination;  nor  did  I  cause  John 
Harrison  to  be  nominated.  Jones  had  marshalled 
his  superior  forces.  The  delegates  were  about  to 
stampede  in  his  direction.  Whereupon  I  brought 
out  my  Norfolk  man,  and  later  my  Valley  man;  for 
I  thought  that  their  votes  would  go  to  you  upon  the 
withdrawal  of  their  names.  James  Temple  was  de 
feated;  but  Timothy  Murphy  was  routed.  Harri 
son  will  be  elected.  That  much  is  certain.  But  in 
his  election  you  and  I  meet  our  real  defeat. 

"  From  the  first  you  have  known  that  I  advocated 
your  nomination.  A  few  days  ago  you  went  so  far 
as  to  say  that  you  were  necessary  to  me.  I  admitted 
that  you  were.  You  are  necessary  to  me  now.  See 
here,  Temple,  Virginia  is  large  enough  for  us  both. 
I  have  no  desire  to  be  governor  of  Virginia;  but  I 
do  wish  to  go  to  the  United  States  Senate.  You 
are  young;  I  am  old.  I  shall  not  be  in  Virginia 
more  than  a  few  years  as  a  living  man.  I  advise 


THE    BETRAYAL  319 

you  to  go  to  Congress,  where  you  can  make  your 
self  conspicuous.  I  am  willing  to  advocate  your 
election  to  the  Senate,  and  even  your  nomination  at 
the  next  national  Democratic  convention.  You  have 
a  great  future  before  you — if  you  will  dry  your  eyes. 
In  politics  a  man  reaches  success  through  defeat — 
when  defeat  is  due  to  his  steadfastness  to  principle. 
Do  you  grasp  my  meaning?  I  repeat — his  stead 
fastness  to  principle." 

Captain  Temple  dried  his  eyes. 

"Yes,  Mr.  Jones,  my  surprise  was  great.  I  be 
lieved  your  nomination  to  be  certain.  But  the  voice 
of  the  people  was  heard.  We  must  abide  by  the 
wisdom  of  that  voice.  As  soon  as  your  defeat  be 
came  apparent,  I  brought  out  my  Norfolk  man,  and 
later  I  presented  the  name  of  my  Valley  man;  but 
their  votes  went  to  Harrison,  greatly  to  my  disap 
pointment.  Now,  Mr.  Jones,  any  one  so  treacher 
ous  as  Harrison  is  dangerous,  and  I  do  not  believe 
that  such  a  man  can  .hold  your  regard.  Not  only 
is  he  perfidious,  but  he  is  a  fool.  The  treacherous 
man  is  dangerous — but  one  may  be  vigilant.  I  fear 
the  fool." 

"  I  could  have  had  the  nomination,  General  Mur 
phy,  by  stretching  out  my  hand  for  it;  but  I  was 
steadfast  to  my  principles;  I  did  not  care  to  fight 
with  John  Harrison's  weapons.  The  office  must 
seek  the  man  when  I  become  governor  of  Virginia. 
Mr.  Harrison,  who  manipulated  this  convention 
from  Warrenton,  fooled  me  all  along.  I  am  but  a 
poor  preacher,  who  knows  nothing  of  the  cunning 
of  politicians." 

"Your  course  was  dignified  throughout.     To-day 


320  THE    BETRAYAL 

you  are  the  most  popular  man  in  the  state.  The 
hope  of  Virginia  is  in  the  election  of  a  legislature 
that  will  pass  bills  that  will  become  laws  despite 
Harrison.  We  must  have  a  majority  of  each  House 
bound  to  the  leader  by  ties  that  are  unbreakable — 
a  majority  large  enough  to  pass  laws  over  the  gov 
ernor's  vetoes." 

"  I  hope,  General,  that  you  do  not  intend  to  lead 
where  I  can  not  follow." 

"  My  plan  is  wholly  justifiable.  I  propose  that 
every  candidate  that  receives  the  support  of  the 
Readjuster  party  shall  bind  himself  in  writing  to 
abide  by  the  action  of  the  party's  caucus.  Thus  the 
Readjuster  delegates  would  vote  as  a  single  man, 
for  a  majority  of  our  delegates  would  constitute  a 
quorum  when  we  would  meet  in  caucus,  and  a  ma 
jority  of  the  quorum  would  be  the  voice  of  our 
party." 

"  That  is,  you  propose  that  Timothy  Murphy 
shall  be  the  Readjuster  party — rather,  you  propose 
that  Timothy  Murphy  shall  be  monarch  of  Virginia. 
Did  you  suppose  for  a  period  of  time  so  short  as 
one  minute  that  I  did  not  know  all  along  that  you 
and  John  Harrison  together  engineered  that  young 
man's  nomination?  Good-bye,  General  Murphy. 
Bear  constantly  in  mind  that  John  Henry  Jones  is 
still  in  Virginia.  Remember,  too,  that  John  Henry 
Jones  is  going  to  stay  in  Virginia — so  long  as  he 
lives." 

"  Really,  Mr.  Daingerfield,  your  language  is  very 
vigorous." 

"  Madam,  I  was  never  more  completely  in  con 
trol  of  myself.  Wisdom,  not  violence,  becometh  all 


THE    BETRAYAL  321 

Virginians  in  this  crisis.  But  the  day  will  come, 
and  soon,  when  I  shall  draw  this  sword  from  its 
scabbard — when  I  shall  plunge  it  to  the  hilt  into 
the  foul  bodies  of  Murphy  and  Harrison  and  their 
kind.  Vigorous  language,  did  you  say?  No,  madam, 
no.  I  have  chosen  my  words  with  the  utmost  care. 
I  never  was  more  temperate.  That  infamous, 
that " 

"  Mr.  Daingerfield,  please  come  in  to  breakfast." 

They  went  into  the  house  together. 

"  Lord,  make  us  truly  thankful  for  what  we  are 
about  to  receive.  Amen." 

"  Was  the  blessing  quite  appropriate,  Mr.  Dain 
gerfield?" 

"Madam!" 

After  they  were  seated  the  colonel  continued: 

"  No,  Mrs.  Daingerfield,  I  never  use  improper 
language  in  the  presence  of  ladies." 

"  I  hope  that  you  never  use  improper  language 
in  the  presence  of  any  one." 

"  Madam,  I  never  do." 

"  How  did  you  hear  of  John's  nomination?  " 

"Harrison's  nomination,  madam;  Harrison's  nom 
ination  !  The  news  was  brought  to  me  by  Lancas 
ter,  who  left  that  gathering  of  infamous  rogues  as 
soon  as  the  young  thief  was  nominated." 

"  Poor  Lelia !  " 

"Poor,  indeed,  if  she  ever  marries  that  treach 
erous  young  hound." 

"  You  are  much  too  violent,  Mr.  Daingerfield. 
Really " 

"I  know,  madam;  I  know — all  ladies  sympathise 
with  that  poor  little  Harrison  fellow.  They  make 
a  hero  of  him — women  always  make  heroes  of 


322  THE    BETRAYAL 

thieves  and  murderers.  There  are  many  men  of  his 
type  in  this  commonwealth.  The  time  is  coming 
when  they  will  bend  their  knees  and  sob  out  to  gen 
tlemen  their  prayers  for  pardon.  But  they  will  not 
be  forgiven, — no,  madam,  no !  In  time  such  men 
may  render  valuable  service  to  this  country;  but 
nothing  shall  save  them  from  ignominy.  Their  fate 
is  sealed  with  the  wax  of  dishonour.  Should  Lelia 
Braxton  marry  that — that — never  mind  what — it 
will  be  said  to  their  children  and  their  children's 
children,  '  You  spring  from  the  loins  of  John  Har 
rison,  a  Repudiator, — a  man  who  was  once  willing 
to  trade  in  the  honour  of  Virginia.'  Even  unto  the 
third  generation  shall  the  name  of  Harrison  be  a 
byword  among  Virginians.  Poor  Lelia?  Poor 
Lelia  indeed — if  her  children  are  to  bear  the  name 
of  Harrison." 

"  Surely,  Mr.  Daingerfield,  you  do  forget  your 
self !  This  awful  news  has  upset  you.  Lelia  Brax 
ton  is  not  married  yet." 

They  went  into  the  garden,  where  the  colonel 
gallantly  cut  a  rose  for  his  wife  with  his  sword. 

"  Now  do,  Mr.  Daingerfield,  put  up  that  sword. 
I  am  so  afraid  you  will  cut  yourself.  Why  did  you 
take  it  off  the  hook  where  it  has  hung  for  fourteen 
years?" 

At  ten  o'clock  Saturday  morning,  the  day  after 
Harrison  was  nominated,  the  gentleman  of  Warren- 
ton  met  their  political  leader,  Mr.  Dabney,  in  his 
office. 

Captain  Lancaster  took  the  floor. 

'You  are  right,  Gary;  Murphy  went  into  that 
convention  expecting  to  secure  the  nomination  of 


THE    BETRAYAL  323 

either  his  Norfolk  tool  or  his  Valley  slave.  The 
battle  was  fought  just  as  you  predicted.  Almost 
equalled  the  Balaklava  charge.  Your  generalship 
never  was  better  shown  than  when  you  declined  to 
interfere  with  the  enemy's  plans  by  manoeuvring  on 
his  line  of  attack.  First  Murphy  tried  to  nominate 
his  Norfolk  minion  by  offering  himself  as  a  candi 
date,  then  by  withdrawing  in  that  tool's  favour. 
Then  he  offered  his  Valley  slave.  That  menial's 
votes  were  later  bet  on  the  Norfolk  henchman.  Har 
rison  received  the  nomination;  Murphy  was  forced 
to  deliver  his  support  to  him  in  order  to  defeat  Jones, 
or  Temple,  and  thus  save  his  own  political  neck." 

"The  chance  was  a  desperate  one,"  said  young 
Dabney,  "  and  I  was  by  no  means  certain  that  Mur 
phy  would  not  succeed  in  nominating  his  Norfolk 
man,  for  I  expected  him  to  control  the  negro  dele 
gates.  I  thought  that  his  own  name  would  draw 
votes  from  Harrison,  Jones,  and  Temple." 

"  You  made  no  mistake.  He  did  draw  votes  from 
them;  but  he  was  unable  to  deliver  those  votes  to 
his  dark  horses.  He  was  compelled  to  choose  Har 
rison,  for  neither  Jones  nor  Temple  would  allow 
Murphy  to  stay  in  Virginia  after  the  election  should 
the  government  be  delivered  to  either." 

"  I  do  not  follow  you,  gentlemen,"  said  Judge 
Braxton. 

"Mere  politics,  Judge;  nothing  more,"  Colonel 
Daingerfield  explained.  'The  young  gentlemen  of 
our  generation  know  nothing  of  statecraft.  They 
think  that  Murphy  and  his  thieves  must  be  fought 
with  their  own  weapons." 

"Hold,  Francis!"  commanded  Mr.  Carter.  "Ex 
plain,  Cary,  if  you  please." 


324  THE    BETRAYAL 

"  Harrison  is  an  honest  man ;  Murphy  is  a  thief. 
A  thief  never  mistakes  an  honest  man  for  a  thief. 
A  rogue  may  fool  a  rogue;  but  a  rogue  always  rec 
ognises  honesty.  Murphy  can  not  use  Harrison,  so 
the  Repudiators  are  defeated  already,  unless  they 
can  control  enough  votes  in  the  next  legislature  to 
pass  laws  over  the  governor's  veto." 

"Sirs,  I  tell  you  again,  John  Harrison  is  Murphy's 
puppet;  a  weakling,  a  scoundrel,  a 

"No,  Daingerfield,"  said  Judge  Braxton;  "John 
Harrison  is  an  honest  man.  The  honour  of  Vir 
ginia  will  be  safe  in  his  keeping." 

"I  agree  with  you,  Braxton;  and  with  you,  my 
son,"  said  General  Dabney.  "  We  must  not  permit 
the  enemy  to  occupy  a  position  from  which  he  can 
drive  us  despite  the  governor's  veto.  We  must  cap 
ture  the  legislature." 

Young  Tazewell  now  entered  the  discussion. 

"  I  think  that  we  shall  elect  both  the  governor  and 
the  legislature.  Surely  the  people  of  this  common 
wealth  will  not  tolerate  Murphy  and  his  party  after 
their  shocking  behaviour  in  their  convention." 

"My  boy,  in  you  is  fructifying  the  statesman 
germ,"  Colonel  Daingerfield  said.  "  Sirs,  this  young 
man  is  right.  Murphy's  plain  people  will  not  re 
ceive  one  vote  in  ten,  our  young  statesman-politician 
here  will  be  our  next  governor,  and  I  shall  retain 
my  place  in  the  Senate.  Our  country  will  bury 
Murphy  and  Harrison  and  their  Repudiators  under 
their  own  infamy." 

"  There  you  are  wrong,  Daingerfield,"  said  Judge 
Braxton.  "The  war  has  just  begun.  Virginia  may 
fall  in  the  first  battle,  but  I  think  that  the  genera- 


THE    BETRAYAL  325 

tion  that  will  follow  our  own  must  solve  the  larger 
questions  that  are  involved  in  this  campaign.  The 
next  generation  will  determine  whether  or  not  an 
empire  shall  be  constructed  out  of  the  independent 
nations  that  are  now  bound  together  by  a  treaty. 
Pelatiah  Webster,  the  author  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  three  years  after  the  Articles  of 
Confederation  went  into  effect,  assured  the  people  of 
the  American  states  that  their  sovereignty  had  not 
been  affected  in  the  least  by  the  treaty  that  they  had 
made  between  themselves.  I  shall  read  to  you,  Tom, 
a  few  passages  from  some  of  the  excellent  books 
that  Cary  has  in  his  library.  Hear  the  language  in 
which  Pelatiah  Webster  interpreted  the  Constitu 
tion  that  he  wrote: 

"  The  true  end  and  design,  of  our  confederation  I  take  to 
be  this,  viz. :  To  unite  the  strength  of  the  separate  states 
under  Congress  as  their  general  Head,  and  to  delegate  to 
them  the  direction  of  the  operations  of  our  military  and 
naval  forces,  against  the  power  of  Great  Britain.  And  this 
I  take  was  the  general  sense  and  understanding  of  the  states 
who  adopted  the  articles  of  our  federal  union,  and  the  whole 
tenor  of  the  articles  themselves  support  this  opinion.  The 
form  of  government  planned  by  Congress,  and  adopted  by 
the  states,  is  the  only  form  we  could  adopt  in  our  circum 
stances:  And  the  honour  and  dignity  of  Congress,  as  a 
private  citizen,  I  am  determined  to  support,  as  much  as  the 
sovereignty,  freedom  and  independence  of  the  states."  x 

"  Chief  Justice  Chase  hastened  to  assure  our  peo 
ple  that  the  disastrous  ending  of  our  war  did  not 

1  Mabel  Hill,  Liberty  Documents,  p.  217,  quoted  in  Ewing's 
Northern  Rebellion  and  Southern  Secession,  p.  14. 


326  THE    BETRAYAL 

take  from  us  our  rights  as  a  nation.     In  one  of  his 
greatest  decisions,  Texas  versus  White,  he  said: 

'  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  in  all  its  pro 
visions  looks  to  an  indestructible  union  of  indestructible 
states.'  " 

Nevertheless,  the  traitor  that  completed  the  assas 
sination  of  the  American  nations  had  in  his  cabinet 
a  man — who  later  became  secretary  of  state  of  the 
United  States  in  the  cabinet  of  one  whose  vicious 
assaults  upon  the  American  nations  that  had  been 
sovereignties  were  exceeded  only  by  his  successor — 
who  publicly  declared,  in  effect,  while  he  held  the 
office  of  secretary  of  state,  that  the  states  should  be 
ware,  or  they  should  have  taken  from  them  the  few 
semblances  of  sovereignty  that  a  gracious  federal 
power  had  been  pleased  to  bestow  upon  them. 
But,  to  return  to  the  judge,  who  continued: 
"  President  Monroe  wrote  that  two  propositions 
were  beyond  dispute: 

"  The  first  is,  that  in  wresting  the  power,  or  what  is  called 
the  sovereignty,  from  the  crown,  it  passed  directly  to  the 
people.  The  second,  that  it  passed  directly  to  the  people  of 
each  colony,  and  not  to  the  people  of  all  the  colonies  in  the 
aggregate — to  thirteen  distinct  communities,  and  not  to 
»»  2 


one. 


"  I  will  now  read  to  you  from  Article  I  of  the 
Treaty  of  Paris: 

"  His  Britannic  Majesty  acknowledges  that  said  United 
States,  viz:  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts  Bay,  Rhode 
Island  and  Providence  Plantations,  Connecticut,  New  York, 

-  Niles's  Register,  vol.  xxii,  p.  366. 


THE    BETRAYAL  327 

New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia, 
North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  to  be  Free, 
Sovereign,  and  Independent  States;  that  he  treats  with  them 
as  such." 


"  Shall  the  federal  power  impose  an  income  tax 
upon  the  people  of  a  sovereign  country?  Shall  that 
power  be  so  expanded  as  to  break  down  all  the  bar 
riers  that  constitute  Virginia's  fortifications?  Shall 
our  people  lose  their  characteristics?  Shall  they  be 
come  a  part  of  the  people  of  an  empire  made  of  all 
the  peoples  of  the  world — an  empire  without  a  peo 
ple,  without  a  people  as  an  individuality?  The  ques 
tion  of  the  most  vital  importance  to  this  nation  is 
this:  Shall  Virginia  live?  Murphy  and  his  follow 
ers  may  despoil  her,  then  deliver  her  outraged  body 
— not  her  spirit,  not  Virginia,  but  her  outraged  body 
— to  the  empire  that  all  about  us,  north,  south,  and 
west,  is  being  constructed.  Almighty  God,  save  us 
from  such  a  fate !  " 

"  Why,  Judge,  is  the  South,  a  nation  in  herself, 
willing  to  be  made  a  part  of  her  enemy's  territory?  " 

"  Tom  Tazewell,  I  will  explain  to  you  that  the 
southern  nations  that  formed  a  confederation  to  de 
fend  themselves  against  a  common  enemy,  by  their 
compact  did  not  create  a  single  nation.  Each  nation 
fought  to  preserve  her  individual  sovereignty;  hence 
the  southern  confederation  would  have  been  dis 
solved  peacefully  upon  the  successful  termination  of 
the  war,  although  later  the  nations  parties  to  the 
compact  of  confederation  doubtless  would  have  en 
tered  into  a  treaty  with  one  another  similar  in  vari 
ous  provisions  to  the  compact  of  1788  and  its  amend 
ments.  The  new  treaty  would  have  defined  the  re- 


328  THE    BETRAYAL 

lations  of  the  nations  to  one  another,  but  that  in 
strument  would  not  have  affected  the  sovereignty  of 
any  party  to  the  agreement. 

'  To  show  you,  Tom,  how  jealously  the  parties  to 
the  southern  confederation  guarded  their  rights,  if 
you  will  hand  me  that  bundle  of  documents  I  will 
read  to  you  from  the  correspondence  that  took  place 
between  the  war  governor  of  Georgia,  Joseph  E. 
Brown,  and  the  Confederate  secretary  of  war,  James 
A.  Seddon.  Governor  Brown,  when  his  state  was 
invaded  by  General  Sherman,  raised  an  army  to 
resist  the  invaders.  Whereupon  Mr.  Seddon,  in 
obedience  to  the  instructions  that  he  had  received 
from  Mr.  Davis,  made  requisition  on  the  governor 
for  the  entire  Georgian  army  that  was  not  then  with 
the  Confederate  forces.  Now,  I  will  read  you  ex 
tracts  from  his  letters  that  the  governor  wrote  to 
the  secretary: 

"  '  I  have  an  organisation  of  gallant,  fearless  men,  ready 
to  defend  the  State  against  usurpations  of  power  as  well  as 
invasions  by  the  enemy.  .  .  .  Her  militia  have  been 
organised  and  called  into  active  service  under  her  own  laws 
for  her  own  defence,  and  I  do  not  feel  that  I  am  authorised 
to  destroy  her  military  organisation  at  the  behest  of  the 
President,  or  to  surrender  to  him  the  command  of  the  troops 
organised  and  retained  by  her  by  virtue  of  her  reserved  power 
for  her  own  defence  when  greatly  needed  for  that  purpose, 
and  which  are  her  only  remaining  protection  against  the  en 
croachments  of  centralised  power.  I  therefore  decline  to 
comply  with  or  fill  this  extraordinary  requisition.  .  .  . 
And  if  you  will  not  consider  the  remark  acrimonious,  I  will 
add  that  the  people  of  my  State,  not  being  dependent,  and 
never  intending  to  be,  upon  that  government  for  the  privi 
lege  of  exercising  their  natural  and  Constitutional  rights, 


THE    BETRAYAL  329 

nor  the  Executive  of  the  State  for  his  official  existence,  I 
shall  on  all  occasions  feel  at  liberty  to  exercise  perfect  inde 
pendence  in  the  discharge  of  my  official  obligations,  with  no 
other  restraints  than  those  thrown  around  me  by  a  sense  of 
duty,  and  the  Constitution  of  my  country,  and  the  laws  of 
my  State.'"3 

"  My  boy,  never  spell  the  southern  section  of  this 
continent  that  consists  of  sovereign  countries  with  an 
initial  capital  letter.  There  never  was  a  '  South '  in 
America.  The  Confederate  States  of  America,  a 
temporary  association,  was  the  result  of  an  agree 
ment  between  certain  sovereignties,  and  the  words 
of  that  agreement  were  never  intended  to  mean  that 
sovereign  entities  would  be  merged  into  a  nation. 
The  countries  of  America  delegated  certain  rights  to 
the  federal  power  under  the  treaty  of  1788  and  its 
amendments,  and  reserved  to  their  sovereign  selves 
all  the  rights  that  they  did  not  so  definitely  delegate. 
States'  rights  have  not  yet  been  submitted  to  the  arbit 
rament  of  arms — but  nearly  all  of  the  rights  of  the 
states  have  been  taken  from  them.  Virginia  did  not 
fight  to  establish  a  nation;  but  she  fought  to  main 
tain  her  sovereignty — to  preserve  the  nation  Vir 
ginia.  She  would  have  defeated  the  purpose  of  her 
war  had  she  terminated  her  existence  as  a  nation 
upon  entering  the  confederation  of  southern  states." 

"  I  thank  you,  Judge." 

"Shame  on  you,  I  say,  young  man!"  Colonel 
Daingerfield  thundered.  "Shame  on  you!  Sirs, 
indeed  is  Virginia  sick  unto  death  when  a  youth  of 
Tom  Tazewell's  education  and  parentage  has  to  be 
told  such  elemental  truths." 

3  Fieller's  Life  anl  Times  of  Joseph  E.  Brown,  pp.  313-335. 


330  THE    BETRAYAL 

"Well,  Colonel,  had  each  state  been  sovereign 
would  they  not  soon  have  destroyed  one  another?" 
'  Young  man,  Europe  is  divided  into  nations, 
some  of  which  have  endured  for  many  centuries. 
The  world  is  divided  into  nations,  some  of  which 
have  endured  for  millenniums.  The  American  na 
tions  would  not  have  devoured  one  another,  nor 
would  they  have  been  devoured  by  other  countries." 

"And,  Francis,  my  son,"  said  Mr.  Carter,  "the 
twaddle  that  we  have  heard  all  our  lives  to  the  effect 
that  a  single  nation  would  have  to  be  constructed 
out  of  the  independent  American  states  to  save  them 
from  themselves  is  wearisome  in  the  extreme.  That 
great  document,  the  federal  treaty,  was  more  nearly 
perfect  than  any  other  instrument  made  by  man; 
but  the  time  came  when  it  ceased  to  be  operative. 
The  compact  provided  for  the  perpetuation  of  the 
sovereignty  of  each  nation  that  was  a  party  to  it. 
John  Marshall,  the  first  emperor  of  the  American 
empire,  left  but  little  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  for  others  to  destroy." 

"Yet,"  Cary  Dabney  said,  "  I  venture  to  say  that 
the  federal  treaty  was  not  nearly  a  perfect  instru 
ment.  The  federal  government  should  not  have 
been  concerned  as  to  how  any  state  should  raise  her 
part  of  the  money  necessary  to  defray  the  general 
expense.  The  first  blow  was  dealt  to  the  sovereignty 
of  the  states  when  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  permitted  the  federal  power  to  levy  any  kind 
of  tax.  There  would  have  been  no  war  between  the 
states,  and  the  sovereignty  of  no  one  of  the  Amer 
ican  nations  would  have  been  jeopardised,  had  there 
been  free  trade  between  the  states,  and  between  the 
states  and  other  nations.  Neither  the  federal  gov- 


THE    BETRAYAL  331 

ernment  nor  any  state  should  have  had  the  right  to 
obtain  money  by  imposts." 

"  I  said  as  much,  Gary,  before  I  went  on  the 
bench,"  said  Judge  Braxton.  "  The  expenses  of  the 
federal  authorities  should  have  been  very  small. 
We  may  say  that  fully  three-fourths  of  the  money 
expended  by  the  government  at  Washington  for  ad 
ministrative  purposes  during  the  last  past  half  cen 
tury  was  so  much  waste  of  public  moneys.  Indeed, 
no  one  supposed  when  the  union  was  formed  that 
the  expenses  of  the  federal  government  would  exceed 
a  very  small  sum.  There  were  to  be  a  few  em 
ployees  of  the  general  government  only,  for  only  a 
few  were  necessary." 

Had  Judge  Braxton  lived  in  the  year  1909,  be 
fore  the  census  employees  were  engaged,  he  would 
have  found  370,065  persons  on  the  federal  pay 
roll,  as  against  306,141,  in  1907,  an  increase  in 
two  years  of  about  64,000  persons,  or  about  20  per 
cent.  O  you  plain  people,  can  you  not  see  that  you 
are  rapidly  reaching  the  time  when  you  will  be  em 
ploying  yourselves,  and  still  be  federal  employees ! 

Judge  Braxton  continued: 

"  Now  many  persons  say  that  the  federal  gov 
ernment  should  levy  an  income  tax  upon  the  peoples 
of  sovereign  nations,  that  a  federal  law  to  regulate 
divorce  should  apply  to  all  the  states !  Federal  laws 
have  been  enacted  that  were  designed  to  regulate  the 
domestic  relations  of  the  people  of  a  state  to  one 
another.  Yes,  the  next  generation  will  have  to  de 
cide  whether  there  shall  be  left  any  vestige  of  the 
compact  that  was  made  by  these  sovereignties  a  hun 
dred  years  ago.  The  peoples  no  longer  retain  the 
rights  which  they  did  not  delegate  to  the  federal 


332  THE    BETRAYAL 

government,  but  we  now  are  told  that  they  have  no 
rights  save  those  that  are  granted  to  them  by  that 
power. 

"  A  federation  of  the  nations  of  Europe  that  would 
give  place  to  a  single  nation  of  those  forming  the 
federation  would  mean  the  passing  of  western  civil 
isation.  California  and  Virginia  may  live  in  peace 
when  bound  by  a  treaty  that  preserves  to  each  her 
sovereign  rights;  but  those  nations  may  not  be  amal 
gamated,  even  if  made  into  a  monarchy,  for  the 
peoples  of  the  American  nations  can  not  be  formed 
into  a  single  country  that  shall  long  endure.  Tom 
Tazewell,  if  the  nations  are  to  destroy  one  another, 
if  they  are  to  lose  their  civilisation,  those  awful 
calamities  will  be  effected  through  coalescence,  not 
by  the  preservation  of  their  sovereign  entities. 
Latin  Americans  are  not  comparable  to  the  peoples 
of  these  united  states." 

"  You  will  find,  sirs,"  Colonel  Daingerfield  said, 
"  that  the  people  of  Virginia  will  uphold  the  sov 
ereignty  of  their  country  next  fall." 

"Do  you  mean  Murphy's  followers?" 

"  Lancaster,  I  do  not." 
'Then  you  mean  the  gentry?" 

"  Sir,   I  referred  to  the  people  of  Virginia." 

'  Well,  as  my  daughter  Gladys  would  say,  there 
are  just  three  kinds  of  people  in  Virginia — coons, 
cornstalkers,  and  old  maids.  If  you  expect  our 
candidates  to  be  elected  by  the  gentry,  aided  by  the 
yeomanry  and  the  peasantry,  you  can  count  yourself 
out  of  this  game,  just  as  you  were  counted  out  of 
that  jack-pot  last  Saturday  night." 

"  Sirs,"  said  the  colonel,  after  he  had  withdrawn 
his  withering  eyes  from  the  captain,  "  I  must  now 


THE    BETRAYAL  333 

return  to  my  home;  but  before  I  go  I  wish  to  re 
peat  that  I  give  place  to  no  man  in  my  affection  for 
those  Virginian  yeomen  and  peasants  that  are  worthy 
of  their  country." 

"Lelia,  I  was  nominated  yesterday." 

"Yes." 

"  I  have  accepted  the  responsibility.  This  after 
noon  I  go  to  Richmond,  and  I  shall  speak  in  every 
county  in  the  commonwealth  before  I  return  to  War- 
renton.  You  will  not  see  me  again  before  the  mid 
dle  of  August." 

"Yes." 

"  I  go  to  fight  for  Virginia." 

"  You  go  to  fight  Virginia." 

"  No,  I  go  to  fight  for  her  honour  and  her  sov 
ereignty.  Before  I  leave  I  promise  you  that  if  I 
be  elected  I  shall  use  every  means  in  my  power  to 
effect  an  honourable  settlement  of  the  debt;  I  prom 
ise  to  defend  Virginia's  sovereignty;  I  promise  to 
defend  her  honour  as  I  would  my  own.  I  promise 
you  to  try  to  be  worthy  of  Virginia." 

"Yes." 

"  You  will  hear  me  charged  with  every  kind  of 
iniquity.  I  shall  find  that  hard  to  bear — even  for 
Virginia's  sake." 

"Yes." 

"Has  God  answered  your  prayer?" 

"Yes." 

"Well?" 

"I  shall  not  marry  Murphy's  candidate;  I  shall 
not  marry  Murphy's  governor;  should  you  be  de 
feated,  I  shall  not  marry  Murphy's  defeated  Repu- 
diator." 


334  THE    BETRAYAL 

"  That  from  you,  Lelia  !  " 

"Yes." 

John  Harrison  went  out — to  his  work. 

Lelia  Braxton  went  to  the  magnolia  grove.  A 
star  was  visible  before  she  left  the  old  grapevine 
swing,  her  Bible  in  her  hand,  and  made  her  way  to 
her  room. 

"Wa-al,  I  come  back  ter-night,  an'  I  come  right 
frum  the  train  ter  see  you  jest  the  same  as  a  love- 
maker-r  oughter." 

"  I  ain't  settin'  no  store  by  your  love-makin'.  I've 
had  beaux  an'  beaux  in  my  time,  but  I  never  seen 
sech  an  awkward  piece  as  you  in  all  my  life." 

"  I'm  gittin'  mighty  tired  o'  them  hard  words.  I 
ain't  hearn  nuthin'  good  outen  you  sence  the  first 
time  I  come  ter  see  you.  You  wus  mighty  perlite 
that  day,  I  kin  tell  you;  but  like  a  darn  fool,  the 
next  day  I  up  an'  axed  you.  Then  I  thought  I  wus 
shot,  you  jumped  at  me  so  sudden-like.  Ever  sence 
I  ain't  hearn  nuthin'  outen  you  'ceptn  sass,  an'  I'm 
gittin'  mighty  tired.  I  don't  believe  you  ever  had 
no  lover  befo'  I  come  long 

Unobserved,  Mrs.  Rice  entered  the  room  in  time 
to  overhear  Mr.  Stokes'  last  speech. 

"  Why,  you  Roger  Williams  Stokes,  ain't  you 
ashamed  of  yourself  to  take  Eugenie  Victoria  down  a 
button-hole  lower  like  that!  I  never  hearn  sech  talk 
before  come  outen  no  man's  mouth.  Don't  you  have 
nothin'  more  to  do  with  him  to-night,  Eugenie  Vic 
toria.  Po'  chile,  I  don't  wonder  you  cry!  I  jest 
won't  stay  in  the  room  with  you  no  longer,  Stokes, 
till  you  know  how  to  behave  yourself  like  a  gent'man. 
Why  don't  you  jine  some  club  an'  learn  how  gent'- 
men  behave.  Come  along,  Eugenie  Victoria." 


THE    BETRAYAL  335 

Mrs.  Rice  and  her  daughter  took  their  departure. 

Dorothea  Annabel  entered  the  parlour  a  few  min 
utes  later.  She  concealed  her  disappointment  as  she 
lightly  tapped  the  globe  that  covered  the  wax  fruit 
with  one  of  the  artificial  flowers  that  she  had  taken 
from  a  highly  decorated  Japanese  vase,  which  Mrs. 
Rice  had  bought  from  a  travelling  merchant,  and 
which  was  reduced  in  price  from  one  dollar  to 
seventy-eight  cents.  She  had  heard  that  the  visitor 
was  Captain  Temple. 

"What  is  the  matter  with  you,  Mr.  Stokes?  You 
look  as  if  you  were  In  great  distress." 

"  I'm  'fected  deep — mighty  deep." 

"Why,  how? — what  is  the  matter?" 

"  I'm  in  love." 

"You  have  been  in  love  for  a  long  time.  Why 
should  love  have  such  a  peculiar  effect  on  you  now? 
Have  you  quarrelled  with  Eugenie  Victoria?" 

"  I  ain't  never  loved  Eugenie  Victoria.  My  heart's 
lovin'  o'  somebody  else — mighty  powerful." 

"  I  thought  that  you  were  engaged  to  my  sister?  " 

"  Land,  no !  How  could  you  hev  tuck  up  with 
sich  a  foolish  notion?" 

"  You  have  been  with  her  constantly  for  more 
than  a  year." 

"  I  ain't  never  axed  her  to  do  no  marr'in'.  I 
reckon  she  done  all  the  axin'." 

"Why,  Mr.  Stokes!" 

"Wa-al,  it  wan't  done  'zactly  that  way;  but  it 
'mounted  ter  the  same  thing  in  the  end,  fer  as  I 
could  see.  I  happened  ter  be  talkin'  'bout  that  nice 
little  piece  o'  prop'ty  o'  mine  the  day  after  I  fust 
seen  Eugenie  Victoria,  an'  she  says,  says  she:  'I 
'lows  as  you  oughter  hev  a  woman  ter  help  you  take 
care  o'  that  nice  little  piece  o'  prop'ty' ;  an'  Eugenie 


336  THE    BETRAYAL 

Victoria  she  says,  says  she :  ''  I  hopes  when  you  do 
gits  hold  o'  a  woman  she'll  know's  much  'bout  house- 
keepin'  as  me — I  knows  a  heap  'bout  housekeepinV 
*  An'  I  says,  says  I :  'I  hope  so  too.'  An'  she  says, 
says  she:  'Oh,  Mr.  Stokes;  this  is  so  sudden- 
like!  ' — jest  the  same  as  I  done  read  in  Rosa  Gary's 
'Wee  Wifie '  come  yesterday.  An'  then  she  sat  on 
my  knee  the  same  as  she  didn't  hev  tall,  sharp  bones 
—the  scrawny  critter.  Ain't  hearn  nuthin'  but  sass 
outen  her-r  sence.  I  ain't  said  nuthin'  'bout  marr'in' 
no  more — cayse  I'm  in  love,  I  am." 

"Why  do  you  look  at  me  like  that,  Mr.  Stokes?" 

"  Cayse  I'm  in  love,  I  am." 

"What  on  earth  do  you  mean?" 

"  I  mean  I'm  in  love,  I  am — mighty  powerful 
deep  in  love." 

"I  think  you're  a  dying  calf.  Please  do  not  die 
here  in  the  parlour.  Can  I  get  you  a  drink  of 
water?" 

''  You  kin  do  more'n  that  fer  me — you  kin  marry 
me,  you  kin." 

"Oh,  you  insolent  creature!  Oh,  oh,  oh!  Leave 
this  house!  Leave  instantly,  sir!  Leave!" 

Mr.  Stokes  left. 

Ah,  mothers  that  are  peasants  and  yeomen,  why 
do  you  educate  your  daughters?  You  teach  them 
to  despise  you.  You  force  them  always  to  live  celi 
bate  lives. 

Miss  Dorothea  Annabel  sat  alone  from  the  time 
that  Mr.  Stokes  left  her  until  she  heard  Captain 
Temple's  voice  an  hour  later.  She  had  wept  bit 
terly  during  a  part  of  that  hour,  tears  that  were  now 


THE    BETRAYAL  337 

of  anger,  now  of  wounded  pride.  Would  Captain 
Temple  ever  ask  her  to  marry  him?  He  would  call 
to-night,  she  felt  sure,  for  he  had  returned  from 
Richmond  with  the  Fauquier  delegates.  She  would 
arouse  his  jealousy.  Yes,  she  would  make  use  of 
Mr.  Stokes  and  his  proposal.  She  heard  the  cap 
tain's  voice,  and  then  she  heard  her  father,  who 
followed  her  admirer  into  the  parlour. 

"  So  you  ain't  goin'  to  hang  your  hat  up  in  the 
'Zecutive  Mansion.?" 

There  was  no  note  of  hospitality  in  the  Rice 
voice. 

"  No,  I  had  rather  be  steadfast  to  my  principles 
than  to  be  governor  of  Virginia.  The  office,  I  hold, 
should  seek  the  man.  Mr.  Jones  and  Mr.  Harrison 
sought  the  office.  Although  General  Murphy  begged 
me  to  accept  the  nomination,  and  while  I  would 
have  received  two-thirds  of  the  votes  of  the  dele 
gates  had  I  not  withdrawn  my  name  early  in  the 
balloting,  I  had  other  plans.  I  shall  go  to  Congress. 
Already  General  Murphy  advocates  my  election  to 
the  United  States  Senate.  I  shall  be  a  candidate 
for  the  next  presidental  nomination.  I  shall  receive 
the  support  of  the  solid  south  in  the  convention, 
and  I  shall  receive  the  nomination.  I  also  shall  be 
elected." 

The  Rice  climate  changed  from  frigid  to  torrid. 

"And,  Cap'n,  you'll  make  a  great  president.  I 
allus  told  Dorothea  Annabel  as  how  you  had  mo'  in 
you  than  any  man  I  ever  seen.  I'm  goin'  to  bed 
now;  but  I  hope  you'll  come  here  jest  as  often  as 
you  can.  You  is  always  mighty  welcome.  Dorothea 
Annabel,  I  seen  some  mighty  purtty  stars  out  in  the 
gardin'  as  I  come  along  jest  now." 


338  THE    BETRAYAL 

"Come,  Miss  Dorothea;  your  father's  suggestion 
is  excellent." 

They  went  into  the  garden. 

"  Do  you  know,  Dorothea,  my  little  Dorothea 
Annabel,  to  me  this  garden  is  the  most  beautiful  spot 
in  all  God's  creation.  Every  flower  here  reminds  me 
of  you.  Yonder  wild  rose — I  remember  a  time  when 
you  and  the  wild  rose  were  there,  and  I  was  by 
your  side.  Dolly,  this  garden  is  full  of  you.  I 
never  see  a  flower  that  I  do  not  think  of  you." 

"I  like  this  garden  too;  but  I  may  soon  have  to 
leave  it  and  make  a  friend  of  some  other  garden — 
my  own  garden." 

"Why,  Dolly!     What  do  you  mean?" 

"Never  mind." 

"  But  I  do  mind." 

"Are  you  sure?" 

"  I  know  that  there  is  nothing  that  affects  you 
does  not  deeply  concern  me." 

"  You  are  not  interested  in  my  love  affairs." 

"  You  certainly  surprise  me." 

"  You  thought  that  I  was  not  pretty  enough — or 
intellectual  enough — to  have  a  lover?" 

"  You  are  the  most  beautiful,  the  most  gifted,  the 
most  adorable  girl  that  I  know." 

"  Captain  Temple  !  " 

"  I  mean  what  I  say." 

"  You  society  men  flatter  so  one  never  knows  when 
to  believe  you." 

"  So — you — are — going— to — marry.  I  have  looked 
into  your  eyes;  I  have  kissed  your  eyes;  I  have  kissed 
your  lips.  And — you — are — going — to — marry." 

"  I   never  said  so." 

"Then  what  do  you  mean?" 


THE    BETRAYAL  339 

"  Mr.  Stokes  has  proposed." 
"  Mr.  Stokes  is  engaged  to  your  sister." 
"  He  says  that  he  loves  me,  that  he  has  never 
loved  Eugenie  Victoria,  that  he  is  not  engaged  to 
her.     Oh,  he  does  love  me  so  much,  Captain  Tem 
ple!     No  other  man  has  ever  loved  me  nearly  so 
much." 

"  I    see  that  you  love   him,    Dorothea   Annabel. 
Good-bye.     I  hope  that  you  will  be  very  happy,  you 
and  Mr.  Stokes.     I  shall  congratulate  him. 
and  I  shall  ask  him  to  take  good  care  of  my  little 
Dorothea  Annabel,  my  little  Dolly." 

For  a  long  while  Captain  Temple  did  not  with 
draw  his  gaze  from  the  young  girl's  face,  although 
he  knew  that  her  tears  came  from  her  heart  as  well 
as  from  her  eyes.  Those  great  sobs  that  she  tried 
to  suppress  came  from  the  heart  of  a  woman — for 
a  girl  so  young  as  Dorothea  Annabel  is  a  woman 
with  all  the  passion  of  centuries  of  women  when 
she  loves. 

Love,  more  variable  than  the  stars  of  heaven,  is 
quite  as  uniform  as  those  stars,  no  love  differing 
from  another  in  any  essential  element.  The  love- 
tears  of  Lelia  Braxton  were  as  sacred  as  all  the 
waters  of  Jordan.  The  love-tears  of  Dorothea 
Annabel  were  no  less  holy. 

The  captain  rode  home  in  the  starlight. 

"Dorothea  Annabel,  I  love  you;  I  love  you  as 
if  I  did  not  love  Lelia  Braxton.  .  .  .  Yes, 
I  love  you — but  I  shall  marry  Lelia  Braxton.  Even 
though  I  do  not  love  Lelia  I  shall  marry  her.  Love? 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  love.  .  .  .  But  I  love 
you,  Dorothea  Annabel;  with  all  my  heart  and  soul 


340  THE    BETRAYAL 

I  love  you.  .  .  .  You  thought  to  arouse  my 
jealousy;  you  thought  to  make  me  declare  myself — 
you  did  not  know  that  those  sobs  and  tears  nearly 
made  me  ask  you  a  question  that  forever  shall  be 
left  unasked.  .  .  I  wonder  .  .  .  That 
you,  my  Dorothea  Annabel,  whose  thoughts  are  as 
dainty  as  the  flowers,  and  as  pure, — that  you  should 
use  that  Yankee  vulgarian  to  stimulate  the  passion 
of  the  man  that  you  love.  No,  Dolly;  for  all  your 
gentle  soul,  for  all  your  culture  and  natural  lovable- 
ness,  you  are  a  peasant,  and  many  ways  of  the  peas 
ant  are  your  ways ;  nor  all  the  powers  of  heaven  nor 
hell  can  make  a  lady  of  a  peasant.  I  shall  marry  a 
lady." 

*  *  »  •  • 

Byrd  Dandridge  was  the  youngest  of  eleven  chil 
dren.  He  had  kept  bachelor's  hall  at  Sedgemoor, 
the  Dandridge  home,  a  few  miles  from  Warrenton, 
for  about  two  years — since  his  father's  death.  His 
mother  had  been  dead  for  fifteen  years;  his  brothers 
had  been  killed  in  the  war,  and  his  sisters,  all  of 
whom  were  married,  lived  in  other  parts  of  the  state. 
He  had  succeeded  his  father  as  magistrate  as  a 
matter  of  course,  for  the  Warrenton  magistrates  had 
always  been  Dandridges.  Happy  Warrenton  !  Law 
yers  do  not  make  good  magistrates,  but  planters 
do,  and  the  Dandridges  had  been  wealthy  planters 
since  Sir  Peter  settled  in  Virginia,  and  they  had 
been  of  the  best  of  English  country  gentry  for  centu 
ries  before  that  time.  Everybody  liked  Byrd  Dan 
dridge,  and  he  liked  everybody. 

"Byrd,"  his  father  had  said  one  day,  uyou  must 
take  your  bachelor's  degree  at  the  University.  I  got 
through  college  by  two  questions,  and  so  did  your 


THE    BETRAYAL  341 

grandfather.  I  ask  you  to  do  as  well."  He  did; 
but  no  better.  Not  a  book  had  he  opened  since  the 
morning  that  he  went  up  for  his  last  examination — • 
except  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  which  he  read 
every  Sunday  morning  while  in  the  Dandridge  pew. 
Physically  a  giant,  he  spent  his  time  in  riding  over 
the  Sedgemoor  estate,  which  he  managed  success 
fully;  in  hunting  with  his  pack  of  perfectly  trained 
hounds,  and  in  fishing  the  streams  of  his  woodlands. 
His  mind  was  one  that  moved  slowly;  but  he  made 
few  mistakes  other  than  those  of  his  heart. 

"  Hold  on  there,  Byrd! — 'mornin'.  Why  are  you 
going  to  sell  the  old  Dandridge  place  and  all  your 
other  property?  " 

Captain  Lancaster  was  walking  toward  Morven 
as  Mr.  Dandridge,  taking  a  last  ride  on  his  favour 
ite  mare,  rode  rapidly  past  him.  Already  the  cap 
tain  had  sold  for  three  hundred  and  seventy-five 
dollars  the  horse  and  buggy  that  he  had  purchased 
from  Mr.  Dabney. 

The  young  magistrate  was  silent. 

"Why?" 

"  I  promised  M-iss  Boiling." 

"You  are  in  love;  that's  your  trouble.  But  I 
didn't  know  until  now  that  Miss  Boiling " 

"  I  had  rather  not  hear  Miss  Boiling's  name 
spoken  lightly." 

Mr.  Dandridge  blushed  guiltily,  for  neither  he 
nor  his  face  could  lie;  no,  Mr.  Dandridge  would 
not  admit  even  to  himself  that  love  of  Virginia  had 
prompted  his  gift. 

"Well,  this  is  certain;  you'll  not  be  able  to  marry 
for  many  a  long  year  to  come." 

So  Mr.  Dandridge  had  thought. 


342  THE     BETRAYAL 

"  Another  thing,  how  are  you  going  to  earn  a 
living?" 

Mr.  Dandridge  had  asked  himself  that  question 
more  than  once  during  the  last  past  three  weeks. 

The  Dandridge  ancestral  home  was  purchased  by 
Mr.  Rice  that  afternoon.  He  had  drawn  on  his 
bank  for  two  thousand  dollars,  and  the  balance  of 
the  purchase  price  he  had  borrowed  at  the  legal 
rate  of  interest,  six  per  cent.  The  property  had  cost 
him  less  than  half  its  value.  Rice  had  been  the  only 
man  who  had  bid  for  the  property.  Captain  Tem 
ple's  resources  were  exhausted,  and  other  men  of 
means  in  Fauquier  had  been  unwilling  to  increase 
their  land  holdings.  They  were  unable  to  obtain 
labour  to  cultivate  one-fourth  of  the  arable  lands 
that  they  already  owned. 

About  eight  o'clock  that  night  Mr.  Dandridge 
knocked  at  the  door  of  the  Rice  dwelling. 

"Law,  if  it  ain't  Mr.  Dandridge!  Du-u-u  come 
right  in,  Mr.  Dandridge.  I'll  call  the  gyurls  right 
away." 

"  I  have  come  to  see  Mr.  Rice." 

"James  P. — J-a-m-e-s  P. — J-a-a-m-e-s  P.!  The 
Lawd  knows  where  that  man  keeps  himself.  James 
p._j_a.m.e-s  R_ 

"Woman,  what  you  want?  There  ain't  no  restin' 
when  you's  around.  Your  tongue's  allers  soundin' 
like  a  thrashin'-machine." 

Now,  while  the  Virginian  yeoman  and  peasant 
these  days  speak  only  harsh  words  to  one  another 
in  the  seclusion  of  their  sacred  homes,  their  attitude 
is  affectionate  while  they  are  in  the  presence  of 


THE    BETRAYAL  343 

others;  so  Mr.  Rice  was  crestfallen  when  he  was  told 
by  his  good  helpmate  that  Mr.  Dandridge  awaited 
his  pleasure. 

"Ain't  you  satisfied  about  the  sale,  Squire?" 

"  I  have  not  come  here  to  complain,  Mr.  Rice, 
but  to  offer  to  buy  back  a  part  of  the  property." 

"  Thought  you'd  gin  away  all  you  had." 

"  I  did.  This  afternoon  I  gave  to  Miss  Boiling 
every  cent  that  I  had,  except  five  dollars — and  I 
will  give  her  five  dollars  more  as  soon  as  I  have 
earned  so  much." 

"Then  what's  you  goin'  to  buy  any  of  my  prop 
erty  with?" 

"Work." 

"  What  kind  of  work  can  you  do,  I'd  like  to 
know?  Goin'  a-clarkin'  ?  I'll  be  mighty  glad  to 
help  a  likely  young  man  as  you  as  far  as  I  can, 
'Squire.  I  might  find  a  place  in  my  sto'  for  you." 

"  Do  you  remember  the  tract  of  one  hundred 
acres  along  the  Calverton  road?" 

"Yes;  I  certainly  does.  That  land's  standin'  o' 
timber — trees  as  big  round  as  the  new  dinin'-room 
table.  I  didn't  know  as  no  man  wanted  that  piece 
of  land." 

"  I  wish  to  buy  it.  As  you  think  it  is  not  worth 
much,  I  hope  that  I  can  buy  it  to-night,  on  liberal 
terms." 

"  I  never  said  the  land  wan't  worth  nothin'.  It's 
worth  a  heap  sight  more'n  I'll  get  for  it.  That 
land  ain't  never  been  cleared,  and  it  is  good  land,  I 
tell  you — primal  land;  and  them  trees  is  worth  a 
whole  lot  now,  an'  they  is  goin'  to  be  worth  mo' — 
soon  as  somebody  can  be  found  as  is  willin'  to  cut 
them  down  and  send  them  to  New  York.  But  you 


344  THE    BETRAYAL 

ain't   got   nothin'   to   give   for  no  land   nohow,   so 
what's  the  use  of  talkin'." 

"How  much  do  you  ask  for  the  tract?" 
'  Thirty  dollar  an  acre — but  bein's  it's  you,  I  says 
twenty  dollar  an  acre." 

'  This  morning  you  paid  less  than  half  twenty 
dollars  an  acre  for  the  whole  estate." 

"  Well,  I  shorely  ain't  buyin'  no  land  to  sell  at  no 
loss." 

"  I  will  give  you  twenty  dollars  an  acre  for  the 
tract  if  you  will  accept  a  mortgage  of  two  thousand 
dollars,  interest  payable  yearly." 

"  How's  you  goin'  to  pay  intrust,  let  alone  the  two 
thousand  dollar?  " 

"  I  propose  to  clear  the  land  with  my  own  hands, 
sell  the  trunks  of  the  trees  in  New  York,  sell  the 
branches  as  scrap  cord-wood  here,  then  cultivate 
the  land.  The  improvements  will  double  the  value 
of  the  property.  So  if  I  can  not  pay  the  two  thou 
sand  dollars,  you  will  not  lose  a  cent." 

"  How  much  intrust  is  you  proposin'?  " 
'  The  legal  rate — six  per  cent." 

"  I  ain't  givin'  away  my  money  to  no  man  for 
six  per  cent.  Make  it  ten — an'  I'll  close  the  sale 
right  now — two  hundred  dollar  a  year,  one  hundred 
dollar  the  last  day  of  June,  and  one  hundred  dollar 
the  last  day  of  December." 

The  sale  was  made. 

"  I  have  three  likely  yoke  of  oxen  that'll  pull  them 
timbers  outen  that  forest  as  I'll  sell  you,  and  I'll 
fling  in  a  wagon  to  haul  the  cord-wood  an'  a  carry-all 
to  haul  the  trees  with  to  boot." 

Mr.  Dandridge  bought  the  oxen  and  the  convey 
ances,  then  handed  to  Mr.  Rice  his  promissory  notes 


THE    BETRAYAL  345 

for  double  the  value  of  the  property,  the  notes  bear 
ing  interest  at  ten  per  cent. 

After  they  went  to  bed  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Rice  dis 
cussed  the  events  of  the  day. 

"An'  to  think,  James  P.,  you  sold  him  back  a 
hundred  acres  of  land  an'  made  more'n  one  thousand 
dollar  clear,  besides  what  you  made  on  them  steers, 
all  in  one  day." 

"  More'n  that,  maw;  I  sorter  think  that  if  there's 
to  be  any  marryin'  in,  'stead  of  marryin'  out,  this 
here  'Squire  Dandridge  is  a  long  sight  better'n 
Perfessor  Simpson.  He's  got  family,  he  has,  an' 
them  kind  of  young  gent'men  like  'Squire  Dandridge 
ain't  never  kept  down  when  they  once  gets  to  work." 

"An'  you  seen  how  he  looked  at  Phyllis  Daphne 
when  she  done  stuck  her  head  accident-like  in  the 
door?  I  certainly  was  sorry  she  forgot  that  she  had 
her  hair  done  up  in  curl  papers.  Howsome'er,  he 
certainly  did  look  at  her  meanin'-like." 

"  I  allers  told  you,  maw " 

"  Shet  up,  James  P.,  shet  up  I  You  ain't  never 
got  nothin'  pleasant  to  say." 

Soon  the  husband  and  wife  were  at  peace — they 
were  asleep. 

As  Byrd  Dandridge  walked  toward  Warrenton, 
where  he  would  pass  the  night  as  Mr.  Carter's 
guest,  he  thought  of  his  plans  for  the  future.  He 
would  begin  his  new  life  at  dawn  the  next  day;  he 
would  go  into  his  primeval  forest,  and  there  with 
his  own  hands  he  would  build  a  rude  hut  of  logs; 
he  would  cook  his  own  food,  and  there  he  would 
work  like  a  man — work  from  the  first  lights  of  day 


346  THE    BETRAYAL 

until  the  stars  would  come  out  at  night.  Yes,  he 
would  work  for  Betty  Dabney;  and  some  day  he 
would  go  to  her  and  say:  Here  is  the  home  that  I 
built  for  you  with  my  own  hands,  here  are  the  lands 
that  I  subdued,  here  are  the  fields  of  ripening  wheat 
that  I  sowed,  here  are  the  cattle  that  I  raised.  No, 
—he  could  see, — Betty  Dabney  would  be  married  to 
some  one  else  long  before  he  could  provide  a  home 
for  her.  The  beautiful,  dainty,  joyous  Betty!  But 
he  would  ask  her,  he  would  never  let  an  oppor 
tunity  pass  that  he  would  not  ask — for  a  long  time 
he  had  not  let  an  opportunity  pass — whenever  they 
were  alone  together  he  would  ask  her  to  be  his 
wife.  But  now  he  would  go  into  his  forest  with  his 
axe  and  his  oxen.  He  would  haul  logs  and  cord- 
wood  to  Calverton,  the  nearest  railway  depot,  twenty 
miles  away.  As  he  walked  toward  Warrenton  his 
whole  manhood  was  aroused.  He  would  work  with 
his  hands — the  work  of  men  before  men  became 
gods. 

There  was  no  sleep  for  Betty  Dabney  that  night. 
Her  heart  was  with  Byrd  Dandridge,  her  stalwart 
lover,  whose  heart  and  soul  were  even  bigger  than 
his  big  body.  Yes,  he  was  a  man;  and,  she  did  not 
doubt,  he  would  do  the  work  of  a  man.  And  she 
would  go  to  him — if  only  he  would  ask  her  often 
enough  and  earnestly  enough  to  be  his  wife.  This 
night  her  heart  was  her  lover's  as  it  never  had  been 
• — and  Betty  wondered  why  he  was  not  more  ardent 
in  his  love-making. 


CHAPTER   EIGHT 

OOD-morning,  Mr.  Carter;  good-morning, 
Daingerfield;  this  beautiful  June  morning 
has  taken  you  for  a  walk  beyond  my  gates, 
which  you  should  have  entered,  then  gone  your  way 
refreshed  by  the  Morven  hospitality." 

"  We  did  call  to  see  you,  Ingram,  but  were  told 
that  the  glory  of  this  June  day  had  also  affected  you 
— that  you,  too,  had  wandered  abroad  in  search  of 
the  pure  Virginian  air  that  we  used  to  breathe,  air 
uncontaminated  by  Murphy  and  his  minions." 

"  Always,  sirs,  the  Virginian  air  that  I  breathe 
shall  be  pure,"  Colonel  Daingerfield  said.  "  Never 
shall  it  be  corrupted  by  the  Temples  and  the  Mur- 
phys  and  the  Harrisons  and  their  negro  friends,  not 
the  air  that  is  within  reach  of  my  long  sword." 

"Cease,  Francis,  cease;  a  brief  respite,  if  you 
please;  Murphy  and  his  henchmen  are  not  in  har 
mony  with  the  peace  and  beauty  of  this  day  that 
God  has  given  us  as  a  further  evidence  of  His  love 
for  this  His  people.  Let  us  again  commune  with 
Him  through  the  glories  with  which  He  has  sur 
rounded  us — the  azure  above,  the  green  below,  the 
fragrance  and  warmth  that  everywhere  abound." 

"And  among  all  His  blessings,"  said  Judge  Brax- 
ton,  "  those  that  He  has  poured  out  upon  Virginia 
for  three  hundred  years,  none  is  greater  than  the 
glorious  climate  that  He  has  provided  for  every  day 
of  our  year.  It  has  stimulated  our  aspirations,  it  has 
enabled  us  to  bring  forth  abundant  fruit,  it  has  made 
us  great  among  His  peoples." 

347 


348  THE    BETRAYAL 

"Sir,  you  are  right,"  the  colonel  said.  "The 
great  God  in  His  goodness  gives  more  to  Virginia 
than  to  any  other  of  the  peoples  of  the  earth,  for 
with  a  lavish  hand  He  pours  from  on  high  the 
beauties  of  all  creation,  aye,  even  the  greatest  among 
His  blessings,  the  Virginian  climate.  Sirs,  let  us 
drink  to  Virginia:  In  March,  leaping  joyously 
from  her  own  virgin  womb,  Virginia  is  born  again; 
a  burst  of  sunshine,  and  laying  aside  her  robes  of 
white,  she  is  clothed  in  the  garments  of  infant 
Spring.  Now  willows  are  arrayed  in  green  and 
gold;  seas  of  marsh  grass  shimmer  before  fragrant 
zephyrs,  wafted  from  magnolia  groves;  we  listen, 
we  stand  mute,  for  we  hear  the  carolling  of  the 
birds,  the  birds  that  sing  so  joyously  in  Virginia. 
Our  hearts  beat  in  accord  with  all  the  glad  teeming 
life  of  which  we  are  a  part.  Then  comes  Summer, 
Virginia's  youth,  in  which  she  renews  perennially  the 
youth  that  anticipates  the  joys  of  old  age,  when 
happiness  is  unalloyed — for  life,  not  death,  is  the 
reward  of  Virginia's  years.  Infant  Spring  has  kept 
her  promise:  the  maiden  Virginia,  arrayed  in  the 
vestments  of  Summer — Summer  in  Virginia — is  a 
bride.  And  what  a  bride!  The  skies  are  her  blue 
eyes;  the  showers  are  her  gentle  tears;  the  roses  are 
her  pink  cheeks.  Behold — Summer,  the  bride  Vir 
ginia  !  Then  comes  Autumn.  Spring  and  Summer 
have  fulfilled  their  destinies:  Virginia  is  a  mother. 
Bountifully  she  nourishes  her  children,  loading  them 
with  untold  thousands  of  rich  gifts;  barns  are  filled 
with  grain;  apple  trees  are  laden  with  red  fruit; 
the  purple  fox  grape  everywhere  abounds;  every 
where  is  harmony,  and  everywhere  is  perfect  beauty 
— the  beauty  of  God,  lavishly  given  by  His  holy 


THE    BETRAYAL  349 

hand,  the  beauty  of  Virginia — Virginia  the  hand 
maid  of  God.  Now  the  leaves  of  her  forests  change 
their  hues  as  doth  the  rainbow,  the  grey  mists  of 
morning  envelop  the  land  like  an  oriental  veil  of 
finest  texture.  Then  comes  Virginia's  old  age, 
Winter.  Is  any  of  the  ages  of  Virginia  more 
beautiful  than  the  age  of  her  old  age?  Her  snow, 
fair  as  Virginia  herself,  stainless  as  her  proud  es 
cutcheon,  bewitching  as  her  loveliest  daughter,  wraps 
Virginia's  pure  soul  in  a  mantle  of  purity — a  mantle, 
mark  you,  not  a  shroud,  a  mantle  that  she  will  soon 
put  aside  that  she  may  again  array  herself  in  a  floral 
gown  of  equal  beauty.  An  infant,  yet  a  bride;  a 
mother,  yet  a  grandmother,  now  her  children  and 
her  children's  children  are  gathered  about  her  fire 
side.  All  is  well  without;  all  is  happiness  within. 
Here  the  peace  and  the  contentment  that  follow  a 
wholesome  life — one  of  achievement,  which  has  ful 
filled  the  purpose  of  Almighty  God.  Aye,  Virginia ! 
Gentlemen,  the  health  of  Virginia !  Drink  long  and 
deep  the  nectar  with  which  she  has  filled  your  cup — 
sirs,  Virginian  air.  Gentlemen:  Virginia!" 

"And  right  heartily  do  we  drink,"  said  Judge 
Braxton.  "  Indeed,  Daingerfield,  the  Virginian 
climate,  never  bitterly  cold,  never  intensely  hot,  has 
enabled  Virginians  to  tower  above  their  fellow-men. 
Her  orators,  drawing  their  inspirations  from  her 
air,  have  given  voice  to  words  that  fell  upon  their 
hearers  like  the  music  that  is  made  by  her  whisper 
ing  pines  when  they  are  swept  by  her  balmy 
breezes;  her  statesmen,  tempered  by  the  moderation 
of  her  climate,  gave  to  the  earth  her  greatest 
government;  her  daughters,  breathing  that  air,  gath 
ered  from  her  gardens  their  buoyancy,  their  health, 


350  THE    BETRAYAL 

and  their  unmatchable  loveliness.  From  her  climate 
her  sons  and  daughters  take  their  strength  that  is 
her  glory  and  their  gentleness  that  is  her  pride. 
Virginia,  my  sweetheart,  my  wife,  my  mother,  long 
and  deep  do  I  drink  from  your  cup,  the  skies,  the 
wine  of  life — your  air." 

"  My  children,  the  sentiments  that  you  have  so 
nobly  expressed  are  worthy  of  Virginia's  best  tra 
ditions.  Ingram,  I  am  glad  to  see  that  your  service 
of  twenty  years  as  a  justice  has  not  impaired  your 
poetic  temperament.  Your  language  is  still  that  of 
the  Virginian  gentleman  when  you  are  surrounded 
by  the  charms  and  graces  of  fair  Nature.  Francis, 
the  thieves  that  are  abroad  have  not  robbed  your 
soul. 

"  A  day  like  this  recalls  the  superb  odes  of  Horace 
— Horace  the  greatest  of  the  poets  of  antiquity.  Ah, 
Ingram,  how  he  would  have  revelled  in  Virginian 
days — her  days  of  spring  and  of  summer,  and  her 
days  of  autumn  and  of  winter!  True,  the  Roman  cli 
mate  was  beneficent;  but  Rome  lacked  the  variety  and 
qualities  of  the  Virginian  nature — and  all  those  won 
ders  that  you  and  Francis  so  poetically  have  de 
scribed,  the  endless  variety  that  would  have  delighted 
that  great  poet  beyond  measure.  His  great  soul — er 
— er — his  great  soul — his  great  soul  would  have 
been  borne  even  higher  into  the  Kingdom  of 
Glory." 

"  Ah,  Mr.  Carter,  you  hesitated,"  Judge  Braxton 
said;  "you  wished  to  say  that  our  climate  would 
have  carried  Horace  upon  the  wings  of  fancy  until 
he  had  disappeared  into  the  azure  heights  of  Vir 
ginia's  atmosphere.  You  hesitated,  sir;  and  well 
you  did.  Horace,  like  all  Latin  writers  of  verse, 


THE     BETRAYAL  351 

was  a  mere  rhymester,  the  writer  of  prose  that  mas 
queraded  in  the  costume  of  verse — good  verse,  very 
good  verse;  but  verse,  not  poetry.  I  am  unable  to 
understand  how  a  man  of  your  deep  learning  can 
read  Horace  and  neglect  the  wealth  of  Homeric 
poetry  that  is  at  your  disposal." 

"Homer,  did  you  say,  Judge?  Why,  sir,  there 
was  no  such  man !  "  Colonel  Daingerfield  interposed, 
his  eyes  twinkling.  "As  Shelley  says,  Homer  is  not 
himself  until  the  latter  part  of  the  Iliad,  hence  the 
earlier  parts  of  that  poem  were  by  some  other  person 
or  persons.  I  go  further  than  Shelley,  sir ;  I  say  that 
Homer  is  not  himself  in  any  part  of  the  poetry  that 
bears  his  name.  He  was  a  multitude,  sir;  not  a 
single  person." 

"  I  tell  you,  Colonel  Daingerfield,  as  I  have  told 
you  before,  there  is  evidence  in  abundance  that  con 
clusively  proves  that  Homer  was  one  man — sir,  the 
greatest  man  that  ever  lived.  I  would  as  soon  be 
lieve  that  the  Pentateuch  was  not  the  work  of  Moses 
as  to  believe  that  the  Homeric  poetry  was  not  writ 
ten  by  Homer  the  Divine — every  line,  every  word, 
Homer's  own.  I  shall  expect  you  to  read  my  com 
mentary,  The  Elements  of  Unity  in  the  Homeric 
Poems,  a  copy  of  which  I  shall  present  to  you." 

"  And,  Mr.  Carter,  sir,  are  you  preparing  a  com 
mentary  on  the  odes  and  epodes  of  Horace?" 

"No,  Francis,  my  son,  no;  such  a  commentary  is 
unnecessary.  The  odes  and  epodes  of  Horace  ex 
plain  themselves.  At  least  he  was  one  man — the 
one  great  poet  of  all  men." 

'  The  Homeric  epics  are  too  intricate  for  the  or 
dinary  mind  to  understand,"  said  Judge  Braxton. 
"  The  works  of  Homer  need  no  commentary  for 


352  THE     BETRAYAL 

those  that  are  able  to  realise  the  full  meaning  of 
that  great  master  of  the  human  race,  but  there  are 
minds  deeply  cultured  that  require  instruction  before 
they  are  able  to  grasp  the  magnificence  of  Homer; 
then,  too,  the  depths  of  his  wondrous  philosophy 
may  not  be  understood  by  those  that  have  not 
thought  deeply  about  men,  but  have  acquired  their 
knowledge  of  the  human  race  from  books — from  the 
verse  of  Horace.  The  separatists  consider  the  tradi 
tions  of  the  world  argument  against  rather  than  for 
any  belief  that  has  been  accepted.  They  diligently 
seek  to  point  out  discrepancies  that  of  necessity  are 
to  be  found  in  any  work  of  richness  and  scope.  As 
they  do  not  know  the  real  character  of  poetry,  many 
of  them,  refuting  the  statements  of  one  another, 
prove  that  they  are  unable  to  read  Homer  in  Greek 
with  appreciation.  In  their  zeal  to  scrutinise  words 
and  phrases  they  lose  sight  of  the  broad  meaning  of 
the  whole." 

"  Sirs,  had  I  not  passed  the  years  when  men  are 
surprised,  I  should  be  astonished  to  see  two  learned 
men,  Mr.  Carter  and  Judge  Braxton,  wrangling  over 
the  comparative  merits  of  the  great  poets,  Homer 
and  Horace.  I  read  them  both — when  I  am  unable 
to  obtain  the  works  of  the  Bard  of  Avon.  When  I 
am  in  the  midst  of  the  mysteries  of  the  great  Latin 
poet  I  think  that  he  looked  straight  into  the  heart  of 
a  living  man  before  he  wrote;  when  I  delve  into  the 
philosophy  of  life  that  everywhere  abounds  in  the 
Homeric  epics,  I  care  not  whether  they  were  the  work 
of  one  man  or  of  a  nation  of  men.  Why  should 
I,  sirs,  wheri  those  words  were  inspired  by  fair 
Heaven  herself?  Homer,  were  he  a  man  or  an  army 
of  men,  is  for  us  a  single  being,  an  immortal  being, 


THE     BETRAYAL  353 

who  looked  into  the  hearts  of  men,  and  then  held  on 
high  one  man,  that  all  the  world  might  see." 

"Why,  there  come  Gary  Dabney  and  Gladys  Lan 
caster  !  "  Judge  Braxton  exclaimed.  "  Ah  me,  their 
attitude  recalls  a  morning  in  June  more  than  forty 
years  ago,  just  such  a  morning  as  this,  when  Miss 
Polly  Boiling  and  I  strolled  down  this  road  to 
gether  !  Indeed  is  Virginia  young !  " 

"Zounds,  Judge!  Do  you  mean  Mary  Caperton, 
the  girl  who  is  now  your  wife?" 

"Yes,  Daingerfield,  yes,  yes — you  are  quite  right. 
I  was  thinking  of  a  June  morning  several  years  be 
fore  the  time  that  you  and  I  were  daily  callers  at 
General  Caperton's  home — the  time  when  I  went 
to  see  the  beautiful  Miss  Mary.  You  went  to  see 
Miss  Susan — the  beautiful  Miss  Susan." 

"Why,  man,  I  myself  heard  you  tell  the  beautiful 
Miss  Mary  that  you  never  loved  any  other  woman 
than  herself." 

"  Ah,  Francis,  but  he  did  not  tell  the  lovely  little 
dame  that  he  had  never  strolled  with  Mistress  Polly 
Boiling  down  this  lane  of  love." 

"  I  have  heard,  Mr.  Carter,  that  you  too  used  to 
explore  this  same  way  with  Miss  Polly,  more  than 
forty  years  ago." 

"True,  Francis,  true;  but  those  were  in  the  days 
of  my  middle-age,  when  Mistress  Boiling  was  only 
a  slip  of  a  girl " 

"Hold,  Mr.  Carter!  Hold,  sir!  You  have  no 
right,  believe  me,  sir,  to  tell  Miss  Boiling's  age. 
She  is  still  a  young  and  very  beautiful  woman." 

"Well,  well,  young  people,"  Judge  Braxton  said; 
"so  you  too  have  accepted  Virginia's  invitation  and 
have  walked  abroad  into  her  morning,  amid  her 


354  THE    BETRAYAL 

flowers,  over  her  green  fields,  a-down  her  path  of 
glory." 

"  Why,  Judge  Braxton,  how  poetical  you  are  this 
morning — and  I  do  so  love  poetry.  I  just  read  it 
and  read  it  and  read  it  all  day  long — simpliment 
pour  passer  le  temps,  you  know." 

"Well,  little  girl,"  said  Mr.  Carter,  "in  the  days 
when  Virginia  was  young — when  I  was  young — 
young  ladies  were  not  put  to  the  trouble  to  read 
poetry — never.  There  was  always  some  young  man 
to  read  the  odes  of  Horace  to  them,  after  a  while 
to  lay  aside  the  works  of  that  great  poet  and,  in 
tones  of  adoration  as  sincere  as  they  were  fervent,  to 
pour  into  half-willing  ears  words  that  came  from 
his  heart.  And  those  words,  as  they  came  from  his 
heart,  through  his  lips,  blossomed  into  poetry,  even 
as  this  bud  bloometh  into  a  rose." 

"Mr.  Carter,  pardon  me,  sir,"  Mr.  Dabney  said; 
"  but  one  of  the  frailties  of  the  aged, — and  I  concede 
to  no  man  a  greater  respect  for  old  age  than  that 
which  I  hold, — one  of  the  frailties  of  the  aged,  I 
say,  sir,  is  inability  to  realise  the  upward  tendency 
of  mankind,  the  natural  growth  in  the  arts  and  in  the 
virtues  of  humanity.  Each  generation  is  in  every 
way  superior  to  preceding  generations.  To  deny  the 
truth  of  this  would  be  to  give  no  weight  to  the  evi 
dence  that  greets  you  at  every  turn,  and  would  be 
equivalent  to  saying  that  the  purpose  of  the  Master 
had  failed." 

"  Your  impertinence,  sir,  is  excusable  only  on  the 
ground  of  your  excessive  youth,  a  fault,  sir,  that 
only  Time  will  correct.  But  I  shall  overlook  your 
intemperance  even  so  far  as  to  explain  that  the  world 
does  not  improve  from  day  to  day.  You  are  no 


THE    BETRAYAL  355 

better  than  your  father;  and  your  generation  is  one 
of  pygmies  as  compared  with  the  generation  that 
produced  giants  like  Horace." 

"  I  think  you're  just  right,  Mr.  Carter.  I  certainly 
do  love  old  men,  and  some  day  I'm  going  to  marry 
the  very  oldest  man  I  know." 

"And,  my  child,  a  very  charming  wife  you  will 
make  me." 

"  Why,  boy,"  said  the  colonel,  "  when  I  was  your 
age  there  was  no  young  man  in  Virginia  that  did 
not  compose  poems  for  all  the  young  women  of  his 
acquaintance." 

"  Poems  out  of  his  old  stock,  sir,  no  doubt." 

"  No,  sir,  no !  In  those  days  women  were  so  beau 
tiful  and  men  so  chivalrous  that  forth  from  a  manly 
heart  poems  would  force  their  way  like  the  rush  of 
the  waters  of  the  sea,  sweeping  all  maiden  hearts 
before  them.  In  rhyme  would  burst  the  young  man's 
passion,  shaming  the  ardour  of  the  midday  sun — 
emotional  words,  uttered  without  thought,  as  spon 
taneous  as  the  glances  from  his  eyes,  as  beautiful 
as  the  music  of  some  symphony  played  by  Nature 
upon  the  harp  of  Heaven." 

"  I  just  bet  my  bottom  dollar  if  popper  were  here 
he'd  say,  'You  mean  the  lyre,  Colonel;  that's  the 
kind  of  instrument  the  Virginny  lover  plays.' ' 

"  I,  sitting  as  a  justice,  amid  all  this  wealth  of 
Nature  primeval,  shall  settle  this  dispute  at  once," 
Judge  Braxton  said.  "  You,  Mr.  Cary  Gordon 
Dabney,  forthwith  recite  to  Miss  Gladys  Lancaster 
a  poem  that  shall  come  from  your  heart,  in  a  man 
ner  worthy  of  the  days  recalled  by  Mr.  Carter  and 
Colonel  Daingerfield — days  that  have  passed  from 
Virginia  never  to  return,  they  contend." 


THE  BETRAYAL 

Whereupon  Mr.  Dabney  heroically  recited  four 
stanzas,  each  consisting  of  two  eight-syllable  iambic 
couplets.  Gentle  reader,  your  narrators  will  spare 
you  as  well  as  this  young  Virginian  lover.  Mr. 
Dabney  was  no  poet. 

"Oh,  oh!  You  dear  old  bearl  I  just  love  you — 
love  you — love  you — love  you!  If  I've  never  loved 
you  before,  I  certainly  do  love  you  now !  " 

"  That  poem — excellent  verse,  I  will  .admit — I 
heard  you  recite  to  a  young  lady  more  than  a  year 
ago;  I  did  indeed,  Judge,"  said  the  colonel.  "Ours 
the  victory.  Honest  Gary  has  selected  from  his  old 
stock  of  writings  the  best  of  his  poetical  works;  and, 
sir,  his  words  droppeth  not  as  doth  the  gentle  rain 
from  heaven  upon  the  place  beneath — as  did  the 
words  of  the  young  men  of  our  day.  I  pause  for  a 
reply." 

"  Wait  a  minute,  Judge!  Just  you  wait  a  minute ! 
Captain  Temple  recites  poetry  of  his  own  to  me — 
oh,  lovely  poetry!  and  he's  a  young  man." 

"  What,  Gladys,  my  child !  can  it  be  that  you  hold 
converse  with  Temple?  Can  that  be  possible?" 

"  Why,  Mr.  Carter,  girls  don't  let  politics  stand 
in  the  way  of  their  beaux.  I've  known  Captain 
Temple,  Governor  James  Spotswood  Temple's  son, 
all  my  life,  and  he  used  to  visit  at  our  home  in 
Charlottesville  when  I  was  a  teensy,  tinesey  little 
girl.  I'm  not  going  to  shake  him  just  because  he 
and  popper  don't  agree  politically  just  now.  No, 
indeed,  I'm  not!" 

"You  are  very  wrong,  madam,  very  wrong  in 
deed,"  the  colonel  said.  "  But  I  for  one  accept  your 
challenge.  So,  Judge,  before  you  render  a  decision 
in  this  matter,  hear  Miss  Lancaster,  if  you  please. 


THE    BETRAYAL  357 

I  assume,  madam,  you  remember  the  poetry  that  is 
recited  to  you,  as  the  ladies  of  your  mother's — er — 
er — our  time  remembered  the  poetry  that  their  ad 
mirers  made  to  them." 

"No,  indeed,  I  don't  remember  all  the  poetry  I 
hear;  not  by  a  lot!  But  Captain  Temple's  poetry 
is  so  exquisite,  so  lovely,  so  perfectly  beautiful,  so — 
I  just  can't  forget  any  of  it.  Here's  one  dear  little 
thing,  Colonel,  that  does  drop  like  the  '  gentle  rain 
from  heaven  upon  the  place  beneath.'  You  just  see 
if  it  don't,  Judge. 


"  '  On  desperate  seas  long  wont  to  roam, 
Thy  hyacinth  hair,  thy  classic  face, 
Thy  naiad  airs  have  brought  me  home 

To  the   glory   that  was   Greece 
And  the  grandeur  that  was  Rome.' " 

"Zounds! — what?  Did  that  fellow  recite  those 
lines  to  you?  Zounds,  I  say!  Zounds!  Did  he, 
madam? — did  he,  I  demand — did  he  recite  those 
lines  to  you?" 

"  Yes,  Colonel.  And  they  are  just  beautiful  lines, 
I  say;  and  I  read  and  I  hear  a  great  deal  of  poetry, 
and  /  know.  Aren't  they  beautiful  lines,  Judge?" 

"  They  are  indeed,  Miss  Lancaster.  Mr.  Carter, 
I  think  we  will  agree  in  our  estimate  of  poetry  in 
this  instance,  and  together  pronounce  those  lines 
among  the  noblest  of  our  time.'* 

" O  temporal  O  mores!"  exclaimed  the  old 
physician. 

"  So  there,  Colonel  Daingerfield,  you  see  young 
men — my  young  men — are  just  as  good  as  mother's 
were." 

"At  least  the  young  gentlemen  that  arc  my  as- 


358  THE    BETRAYAL 

sociates  are  gentlemen,  and  they  treat  ladies  with 
consideration — deference — and  courtesy." 

"Not  so  warm,  Gary;  not  so  warm,  boy!"  said 
Mr.  Carter.  "  Your  violence  is  not  in  keeping  with 
harmonious  Nature  who  surrounds  you.  See  the 
beautiful  day." 

'Young  lady,"  the  Judge  said,  "the  young  man 
that  you  so  greatly  admire,  who  is  arrayed  against 
all  the  decent  people  of  Virginia,  whose  right  hand 
no  gentleman  would  take — has  deceived  you.  Those 
lines  were  written  by  our  greatest  poet, — the  great 
poet  that  Virginia  gave  to  the  world, — and  those  five 
lines  constitute  the  greatest  stanza  that  he  wrote. 
During  my  experience  as  judge  many  depraved  men 
have  been  brought  before  me, — assassins,  thieves, 
thieves  that  would  steal  pennies  from  a  hungry  little 
child, — yet  I  say  that  the  most  contemptible  of  all 
men  is  he  that  steals  the  brains  of  another,  who, 
himself  unable  to  write,  claims  the  work  of  another 
as  his  own.  Let  this  be  a  lesson  to  you,  young  lady; 
and  never  again  do  you  permit  Captain  Temple  to 
address  a  word  to  you.  Hereafter  limit  your  ac 
quaintance  with  men  to  those  that  are  gentlemen — 
not  a  word,  Cary;  not  a  word,  sir!" 

"Oh,  I'm  50  sorry!  That  was  not  the  poem 
Captain  Temple  recited  to  me;  of  course  not.  How 
could  I  have  been  so  stupid?  I  believe  I  know  every 
word  of  the  poetry  that  Mr. — Mr. — Mr. — what- 
you-may-call-um  ever  wrote.  I  read  a  great  deal  of 
poetry,  you  know.  And  now  I've  gone  and  mixed 
up  his  verse  with  Captain  Temple's.  Both  write 
such  beautiful  poetry,  I  think." 

"  I  shall  speak  to  your  father  about  the  matter," 
said  the  Judge. 


THE    BETRAYAL  359 

"Why,  here  comes  Lancaster  now!"  the  colonel 
said.  "But  why  his  perturbation?  He  is  highly 
excited.  A  matter  of  great  consequence  undoubt 
edly  requires  our  attention." 

"  Mr.  Carter,  Judge,  Colonel,  Cary, — 'mornin', 
Gladys, — Shadrach — Shad — Shadrach  Mesheck  Ab- 
ednego  Berkeley  says  he's  going  to  the  legislature !  " 

"What?  Zounds,  man!  Speak  out!  What  did 
you  say,  sir?  Can  this  be  possible?" 

"  My  children,  indeed  have  evil  days  befallen  us," 
said  Mr.  Carter. 

"  My  poor  unhappy  land !  My  poor  unhappy 
land!"  exclaimed  the  Colonel. 

"How  did  you  hear?"  asked  Mr.  Dabney. 

"  The  black  rascal  tacked  a  notice  on  the  court 
house  door.  I  tore  it  down  as  soon  as  I  saw  it. 
Here — read  it,  please !  " 

notiS 

o  yas  o  yas  o  yas  detenchen  fellow  ciTzenS  de  heaRT 
ob  ouR  po  lanS  buSTin  an  eR  buSTin  an  de  good  lawd  he 
done  spressify  me  eR  dReam  an  one  ob  hiS  beauTiful 
ladieS  wid  de  SpReadin  wingS  done  come  To  me  an  di 
rection  bRuddeR  RevnT  docTah  ShadRach  bedniggeR 
beRkeley  de  loRd  he  Say  riSen  ouT  ob  yo  bed  an  pick 
up  diS  bleedin  heaRT  an  make  iT  well  yea  loRd  iSe  eR 
comin  i  Say  So  iSe  heRe  bRuddeRS  whiTe  an  cullud 
come  To  yo  fRom  de  loRd  and  iSe  queSSin  all  ob  you  To 
help  de  loRd  an  me  geT  To  de  legiSlaTuRe  an  de  loRdll 
conveRleSS  you  an  paSSify  me  an  iSe  gwine  uplifT 
ebeRyTing  i  ken  lay  my  hanS  on  in  de  STaTe  i  IS 

youRS  in  de  loRd 
ex  RevenT  docTah  ShadRak  meShuk  bedniggeR  beRkeley 


"Be  calm,  Francis;  this  is  not  a  time  for  impa- 


360  THE    BETRAYAL 

tience,  but  for  thought.  We  must  meet  this  issue  in 
a  manner  creditable  to  Virginia  and  to  her  dead 
statesmen." 

"  Impatience,  sir?  I  was  never  more  temperate  in 
my  life!  Mr.  Carter,  sir,  those  dead  statesmen, 
were  they  now  living,  would  have  forty  lashes  ap 
plied  to  this  negro's  bare  back.  And,  sirs,  they 
would  do  right.  Too  long  has  the  negro  gone  un 
punished." 

"  That  was  Murphy's  move." 
'Yes,   Lancaster,"   the   Colonel  said;  "this  time 
you  are  right,  sir;  and  a  right  dangerous  one.     He 
will  alienate  the  vote  of  his  plain  people." 

"  Colonel,  sir,  I  think  you  will  find  that  Murphy 
will  disclaim  responsibility  for  the  candidacy  of 
negroes,"  said  Mr.  Dabney.  "  He  will  tell  his  plain 
people  that  he  is  unable  to  control  his  negro  follow 
ers,  and  at  the  same  time  he  will  aid  and  abet  them 
in  their  efforts  to  obtain  offices,  especially  their 
election  to  the  legislature.  As  they  can  neither  read 
nor  write,  and  will  be  addressed  by  speakers  with 
hearts  as  black  as  their  hearers'  skins,  we  must  check 
mate  that  move." 

"How,  Cary? — what  do  you  suggest?" 

"  Judge,  for  some  time  I  have  thought  that  Mur 
phy  would  do  this  thing,  so  I  have  developed  a  plan 
that  I  believe  will  enable  us  to  turn  his  play  to  our 
advantage." 

"What  is  it,  son?"  asked  Mr.  Carter. 

"Why,  sir,  it  is  this:  that  you,  an  old  and  highly 
respected  Virginian  gentleman,  shall  oppose  Shad- 
rach;  that  a  man  highly  respected  and  beloved  shall 
oppose  every  negro  that  is  advanced  by  Murphy  as  a 
candidate." 


THE    BETRAYAL  361 

"  Sir,  I  am  surprised !  I  had  thought  never  to  be 
surprised  again;  but  now  I  am  surprised  indeed,  as 
I  never  was  in  all  my  youth.  Sir,  I  am  so  surprised 
that  I  am  unable  to  answer  you." 

"  Mr.  Carter,  sir,  your  surprise  is  no  greater  than 
mine  own,"  the  Colonel  said.  "  I  am  astounded. 
Love  or  politics  has  dethroned  this  young  man's 
reason.  You  are  mad,  stark  mad,  sir!  That  you, 
a  Cary  and  a  Gordon  and  a  Dabney,  should  have 
poured  forth  an  insult  so  awful  upon  the  head  of 
this  venerable  gentleman !  " 

"  Don't  you  mind,  Cary;  7  think  you've  done  just 
right." 

'  Young  lady,  the  time  was,  and  not  so  long 
ago,  when  you  were  quite  wrong,"  the  Judge  said 
quietly. 

"  Gentlemen,  I  have  failed  to  make  my  meaning 
plain  to  you.  I  know,  as  you  all  know,  Mr.  Carter 
would  be  the  last  man  in  Virginia  to  put  aside  his 
duty  to  his  country.  Mr.  Carter,  I  venerate  and 
respect  you,  sir, — and  so  does  every  man  in  Virginia, 
black  as  well  as  white;  and,  sir,  for  that  reason 
every  man  in  Fauquier  county  that  has  the  right  of 
suffrage,  save  one,  will  vote  for  you  if  you  are  a 
candidate — not  necessarily  a  candidate  opposing 
Shad,  but  a  candidate  for  the  legislature.  Shad 
would  receive  but  one  vote,  which  he  himself  would 


cast." 


'  Now,  Cary,  you  are  gaited  like  a  horse  that's 
going  to  win." 

"  And  I'll  put  up  my  money  too,  popper.  Here's 
my  pocketbook  on  Cary." 

"  Indeed,  Mr.  Carter,"  said  Judge  Braxton,  "  our 
young  leader's  plan  seems  to  me  to  be  excellent. 


362  THE    BETRAYAL 

Let  us  have  the  benefit  of  your  advice,  Daingerfield, 
in  the  light  of  Gary's  explanation." 

"  I  spoke  hastily,  I  fear — not  intemperately,  but 
hastily,"  said  the  colonel.  "  Like  the  great  Well 
ington,  who  at  Waterloo  corrected  his  mistakes  as 
he  made  them,  I  have  learned  that  it  is  the  part  of 
a  man  to  acknowledge  his  errors,  and  then  to  rectify 
them.  I  agree  with  you,  Judge;  and  with  you, 
Dabney;  and  with  you,  Lancaster,  and  with  this  fair 
Portia,  whose  wisdom 

"If  you  please,  gentlemen,  you  will  excuse  Miss 
Lancaster  and  me.  We  will  continue  our  walk.  But 
first,  Mr.  Carter,  have  I  your  consent  to  announce 
that  you  agree  to  represent  Fauquier  in  the  Lower 
House?" 

"Yes,  yes,  my  children;  every  man  owes  all  that 
he  has  to  Virginia.  I  thought  that  I  would  end  my 
days  peacefully  among  those  that  I  love, — among 
you,  my  children,  who  are  as  dear  to  me  as  though 
you  were  children  of  my  own, — not  that  I  would 
have  to  spend  my  last  moments  in  wrangling  in  the 
legislative  arena  with  politicians.  But  Gary  is  right. 
I  owe  the  strength  that  is  left  to  me  to  my  country. 
She  shall  have  that — she  would  have  more,  had  I 
more  to  give." 

"  I  thank  you,  sir;  I  thank  you.  Come,  Miss  Lan 
caster  !  " 

"  By-bye,  all !  Please  don't  tell  popper,  Judge. 
You  won't  now,  will  you?  " 

"  Mornin',  gent'men —  Wo-o-o-h,  Dorothea  An 
nabel  !  Wo-o-o-h !  This  here  is  a  great  pleasure, 
Gunnel  Daingerfield,  to  meet  the  gent'man  as  is 
a-racin'  me  from  Warrenton  to  Richmond.  I  jest 
wants  you  to  know  as  I  ain't  havin'  no  hard  feelin's 


THE    BETRAYAL  363 

agin  you.  I  jest  wants  you  to  know  as  the  front  do' 
of  my  house  on  my  estate  is  allers  open  for  the  dis 
tinguished  office-holder  the  people  has  seen  fitten 
to  elect  for  years  comin'  and  a-goin'." 

"  Rice,  how  dare  you !  Go  back  to  your  store ! 
Do  not  presume  too  far;  for  while  my  overseer  has 
left  me,  and  is  now  a  clerk  in  your  shop,  have  a 
care,  or  I  shall  find  means  to  mete  out  to  you  the 
punishment  that  you  so  richly  deserve.  Go  back  to 
your  shop!  Go  back,  I  say!" 

"The  beautiful  morning  is  over  for  us,  boys," 
said  Mr.  Carter.  "  Let  us  return  to  town." 

"  Lancaster,"  the  judge  said,  "  I  understand  that 
Temple  frequently  calls  at  the  Rice  home  to  see  the 
youngest  daughter;  and,  Daingerfield,  this  also  ac 
counts  for  the  lofty  ambitions  of  the  gentleman  that 
is  to  oppose  the  distinguished  office-holder  the  peo 
ple  '  has  seen  fitten  to  elect  for  years  comin'  and 
a-goinV  " 

"  This  here's  what  I  calls  a  fine  day  for  barbecuin'  ; 
sorter  warm-like — the  kind  of  weather  that'll  sweat 
sentiments  outen  them  speechifiers." 

These  words  Mr.  Rice  addressed  to  the  gentle 
men  that  were  assembled  about  the  entrance  of  his 
store  in  the  early  morning  of  the  last  Saturday  in 
June,  the  day  that  had  been  appointed  for  the  barbe 
cue,  about  which  Stover  had  told  Temple.  Besides 
Mr.  Rice,  there  were  present  his  gifted  son,  Dr. 
Reginald  Launcelot,  and  Messrs.  Stokes  and  Simp 
son,  also  Bob,  Captain  Temple's  personal  represen 
tative. 

"  Lawd,  Mustah  Sen'tor,  now  you  sho  am  talkin'. 
I's  done  seen  Mustah  Rev'nt  Docker  Berkeley  an' 


364  THE    BETRAYAL 

Mustah  Buck  Johnsin'  all  het  up  'fo'  sun-up  drivin' 
Mustah  Willums'  white  mule  hooked  side  ob  Mustah 
Berkeley's  red  hawse,  an'  pullin'  ob  some  outlan'ish 
ole  pha'ton,  jest  skidaddlin'  fo'  de  barb'cuin'  camp- 
meetin'.  'Fo'  de  Lawd,  dey  sho  wus  het  up,  an' 
sweatin'  an'  a-sweatin'  out  words." 

"  I  don't  see  why  you  people  daown  her-r-re  done 
set  Andy  Stover  to  bossin'  this  her-r-re  barbecue.  He 
don't  like  coloured  gent'men  nohow,  an'  I  hear-rn 
he  was  talkin'  religion  mighty  power-r-ful-like  last 
night.  I  jest  bet  he's  fuller  en  tick  a-fore  he  started 
barbecuin'  come  daybreak.  You  folks  daown  her-r-re 
don't  know  how  to  r-run  things  nohow.  I  oughter-r-r 
had  that  ther-r-re  barbecuin'  job." 

"  Well,  I  should  say  he  was  drunk.  Religion  on 
the  hill's  so  thick  you  can  cut  it  with  a  knife.  I 
never  seen  anything  at  Princeton  that  could  hold  a 
candle  to  the  jag  Andy's  carryin'  about  with 
him." 

"  Look  here,  Reg'nal'  La'nc'lot,  what's  you  doin' 
knowin'  about  Andy's  bein'  drunk.  Thought  you 
told  me  you  wan't  takin'  nothin'  an'  wan't  goin'  to 
take  nothin'  no  mo'." 

"  Now  you  see  here,  my  old  man,  I  just  went  on 
top  that  hill  to  get  some  soft  cider.  Shorely  you 
don't  think  I  went  up  there  to  take  nothin'  ?  Hell, 
no;  not  so  early  in  the  day." 

The  young  Princeton  savant  saw  no  reason  why 
he  should  explain  to  his  sire  that  he  really  did  not 
consider  daybreak  an  early  hour  of  day,  but  a  late 
hour  of  night.  Clearly  the  young  Princeton  doctor 
was  drunk.  When  he  was  in  that  condition  his 
words  did  not  indicate  quite  all  the  culture  with 
which  he  had  been  crammed  while  he  was  a  student 


THE    BETRAYAL  365 

at  William  and  Mary,  the  University  of  Virginia, 
and  Princeton.  Indeed,  ordinarily  one  never  would 
have  known  that  Dr.  Reginald  Launcelot  was  a  doc 
tor  of  philosophy,  unless  one  would  have  recognised 
in  his  use  of  words  the  doctor  of  philosophy  of 
Princeton,  one  of  those  pilgrims  that  had  travelled  in 
five  years  the  road  that  stretches  from  the  kinder 
garten  to  the  back  door  of  Princeton,  on  through 
the  front  door  of  that  mill — on  a-down  the  royal 
road  to  achievement 

"  Will  some  gentleman  be  so  kind  as  to  explain 
to  me  Mr.  Buck  Johnson's  connection  with  this 
affair.  Again,  permit  me  to  ask,  who  Is  Mr.  Buck 
Johnson?" 

"  Wa-al,  Perfessor,  Mr.  Johnson  comes  from  no- 
wher-r-res;  howsomer-r-r,  he  says  he  comes  from  Sa 
lem.  Now  we  uns  whar  I  come  from  now  an'  then  gits 
ter  go  ter  Salem  that  is  somewher-r-res.  Wa-al,  Mr. 
Johnson,  he  was  a-runnin'  fer  treasurer,  but  he  tuk 
on  so  much  political  bigness  speechifyin'  he  done 
give  up  runnin'  fer  treasurer,  an'  now  he's  runnin' 
for  th'  legislature  from  Roanoke  county,  whar  they 
say  Salem  is.  This  her-r-re  coloured  gent  is  the 
guest  o'  the  barbecue,  an'  he  spent  last  night  with 
Dr.  Ber-r-rkley  out  ter  the  parsonage.  The  Baptist 
coloured  gent  preacher,  Mr.  Williams,  'lows  as  them 
two  gents  is  drunk — an'  wus  drunk  afor-r-re  day." 

Old  William,  Judge  Braxton's  butler,  now  ap 
proached.  He  had  been  sent  to  the  Rice  store  by 
his  master  to  purchase  a  small  article. 

"  Mornin',  Will'um;  how's  you  goin'  to  vote?" 

"I  ain'  gwine  vote,  Mistah  Rice;  I  ain'  nebber 
vote,  an'  I  ain'  nebber  gwine  vote.  I's  a  decent 
cullured  man,  I  is.  I  ain'  gwine  have  nothin'  do 


366  THE    BETRAYAL 

wid  politics,  I  ain'.     Dat's  fo'  Marse  Brax'on — not 

fo'  de  lak  ob  me." 

'  There  ain't  enough  in  it  for  a  highferlutin' 
nigger  like  Mr.  Will'um  Morven,"  said  Dr.  Reginald 
Launcelot  contemptuously. 

'  Yo'  father  sholy  ain'  offen  much  fo'  my  vote, 
suh;  no  more'n  two-dollar-ten-cent;  an'  I  ain'  tuk 
dat  a-fo'  goin'  an'  axin'  Marse  Brax'on  'bout  it. 
I  say:  'Ain'  er  man's  vote  hisn,  Marse  Brax'on?' 
He  done  say,  '  Course.'  I  done  say,  '  Mistah  Rice, 
he  done  say,  "  Willum,  ef  you  done  vote  fo'  me 
hyah's  one  dollar  fo'  you."  An'  den  he  done  say, 
"  One-dollar-fifty-cent."  Den  he  done  say,  "  One- 
dollar-seventy-five-cent."  Den  he  done  say,  "Two- 
dollar."  Den  he  done  say,  "Two-dollar-ten-cent." 
Den  he  done  say,  "  You  don'  git  no  mo'  outen  me, 
nigger.'  '  I  say,  '  Marse  Brax'on,  would  you  sell 
yo'  vote  fo'  two-dollar-ten-cent?'  An'  Marse  he 
done  look  s'prised-lak,  an'  I  done  say,  '  What's 
his's  hisns,  ain'  it,  an'  ef  he  done  got  er  right  ter 
sell  blackberries  he's  done  pick,  he  ken  sell  he  vote, 
ain'  dat  so,  Marser?'  Den  he  look  at  me  ca'm-lek, 
den  he  say,  '  Hab  you  de  right  ter  sell  yo'  wife, 
Will'um?'  An'  I  say,  'No,  suh,  not  mos'ly,  Marse 
Brax'on;  I  'specs  not.  She's  mine,  den  ergin  she 
ain'  mine.  I  'specs  I  ain'  got  no  right  ter  sell  Sary 
Frances.  Den,  Marse  Brax'on,  I  ain'  gwine  sell  my 
vote  nohow  ter  no  man  as  calls  me  nigger.' ' 

" 'Fo'  de  Lawd,  Mistah  Sen'tor,  you  say,  '  Tek 
dis  hyah  dollar-fifteen-cent,  Bob;  dat's  all  yo'  gwine 
t'  git  outen  me.'  'Fo'  de  Lawd,  an'  you  done  offen 
dis  hyah  Mistah  Willum  two-dollar-ten-cent,  an'  he 
ain'  done  nuttin'  fo'  you,  an'  I's  been  sweatin'  an' 
er-sweatin'  out  words,  I  has." 


THE    BETRAYAL  367 

The  white  gentlemen  were  greatly  perturbed.  Mr. 
Rice  now  recalled  Captain  Temple's  advice:  the 
ordinary  negro  should  receive  for  his  vote  two  dol 
lars,  neither  more  nor  less,  while  the  negro  leaders 
should  receive  amounts  varying  in  accordance  with 
their  qualifications,  enhanced  by  their  demands. 

"  Wa-al,  no  man  ain't  never  had  the  sass  ter  offer 
me  no  mor-re'n  two-dollar-ten-cent  fer  my  vote,"  said 
the  carpetbagger.  "  Ef  he  had,  he'd  a-kept  his  two- 
dollar-ten-cent,  an'  I'd  a-kept  my  vote.  I  ain't  never-r 
sold  my  vote  ter  hum  nor  in  Virginny  fer  no  man's 
two-dollar-ten-cent." 

Barbecue  day,  the  festal  high-tide  of  the  political 
underworld  in  Virginia,  yeoman,  peasant,  and  negro 
eat  and  drink  without  limitation,  save  their  own 
capacity.  Beastly  intoxication  was  followed  by  one 
retributive  punishment  only — that  peculiar  discom 
fiture  known  as  "  the  morning  after."  The  ruddy 
shepherds  in  charge  of  the  Methodist  and  Baptist 
white  sheep,  and  the  tinted  shepherds  in  charge 
of  the  Baptist  and  Methodist  black  sheep,  always 
took  part  in  the  barbecue  festivities.  Eminently  was 
it  proper  for  them  so  to  do.  What  shepherd  would 
desert  his  flock  in  danger?  These  good  men  would 
take  a  "  little  suppen  "  also — the  wise  shepherd  is 
always  near  his  sheep,  and  a  "little  suppen"  does 
draw  one  close  to  one's  fellows.  Besides,  pneumonia 
stalketh  around  those  that  linger  about  camping- 
grounds. 

Timothy  Murphy  saw  that  he  could  use  barbecue 
day,  always  a  day  of  rejoicing,  to  effect  a  blending 
of  the  white  and  the  black-and-tan  elements  of  his 
followers — not  social  equality,  but  friendliness,  a  re- 


368  THE    BETRAYAL 

alisation  of  community  of  interests.  Mr.  Stover,  who 
had  been  placed  in  charge  of  the  barbecue  by  Cap 
tain  Temple,  had  succeeded  in  corralling  the  better 
part  of  the  yeomanry,  the  peasantry,  and  the  negro 
male  populations  of  Fauquier  and  adjacent  counties — 
Loudoun,  Prince  William,  Stafford,  Culpeper,  Rap- 
pahannock,  Warren,  and  Clarke.  The  chairman  had 
shown  masterly  craftsmanship  in  all  the  preliminaries 
of  the  fray.  All  was  in  readiness  when  he  and  his 
negro  helpers  reached  the  barbecue  grounds  two 
hours  before  daybreak.  They  soon  had  more  than 
a  score  of  fires  blazing,  six  young  bullocks  killed  and 
ready  for  roasting,  rum,  gin,  whiskey,  and  beer  bar 
rels  tapped,  and  by  sunrise  Mr.  Stover  and  his 
helpers  were  drunk — very  drunk.  Now,  Mr.  Stover 
was  a  religious  man,  and  never  more  so  than  when 
spiritually  occupied  by  corn.  His  spirituality  was  the 
more  ardent  the  more  ardent  the  spirits  that  he  con 
sumed.  He  did  not  mean  to  be  blasphemous;  indeed, 
the  day  after  he  was  unable  to  recall  the  events  of 
the  day  before;  so  with  the  rising  sun  rose  the  re 
ligious  zeal  of  the  mighty  smith.  Gentlemen  did 
not  go  a-barbecuing — at  least  gentlemen  were  not 
officially  present. 

By  two  o'clock,  the  time  for  oratory  to  flow, 
there  was  no  sober  man  in  all  that  great  throng. 
The  good  and  reverend  doctor,  Berkeley,  and  his 
religious  rival,  the  godly  Williams,  were  very  drunk 
—but  not  so  drunk  as  the  smith.  Mr.  Rice  was 
drunk;  Mr.  Stokes  had  discontinued  drinking  cider 
more  than  two  hours  since.  Even  Professor  Simp 
son  had  permitted  the  good  cheer  to  sink  deep  into 
his  learned  mind. 

There  were  many  varieties  of  the  drunks  that  are 


THE    BETRAYAL  369 

positive,  comparative,  and  superlative.  There  was  the 
drunk  that  was  happiness,  the  drunk  that  was  sorrow; 
the  drunk  that  was  silence,  the  drunk  that  was  bois 
terous;  the  drunk  that  was  peace,  the  drunk  that  was 
sullen;  the  drunk  that  was  amiable,  the  drunk  that 
was — there  were  as  many  forms  of  drunkenness  as 
there  were  persons  present,  for  each  and  every  man 
that  drinks  hath  a  particular  drunk  that  is  personal  to 
himself.  Be  it  known,  the  difference  in  drunks  is 
racial,  and  there  are  even  national  elements  in  any 
given  drunk.  There  is  the  Irish  drunk,  the  English 
drunk,  the  Yankee  drunk,  the  Virginian  drunk,  the 
gentleman  drunk — and  the  last  is  the  first  in  loath 
someness  of  all  drunks,  the  drunk  known  as  the  gen 
tlemanly  drunk.  That  kind  of  drunk  is  not  alto 
gether  unknown  in  Virginia. 

Candidates  Johnson  and  Berkeley  mounted  the 
rude  platform,  upon  which  was  seated  chairman 
Stover.  A  whiskey  barrel  served  as  a  table  for  the 
chairman,  upon  which  there  was  a  pitcher  more  than 
half  full  of  gin — the  white  liquor  that  looks  like 
water — and  a  glass.  But  none  of  Nature's  ale  was 
on  top  the  barrel.  Mr.  Stokes,  Professor  Simpson, 
Mr.  Williams,  Dr.  Reginald  Launcelot,  who  was  to 
make  a  speech,  and  candidate  Rice  also  were  seated 
on  the  platform.  Mr.  Stokes  went  forward  to 
arouse  Mr.  Stover,  whose  head  was  prostrate  in 
grief  upon  the  whiskey  barrel.  His  deep  concern  for 
his  country's  weal  had  bowed  him  in  sorrow  so  deep 
that  melancholy  dominated  his  lofty  intellect.  He 
seemed  to  have  lost  the  power  that  he  had  enjoyed 
for  many  hours — the  ability  to  cry  aloud  in  his 
wrath  in  a  voice  that  shook  the  hills. 

"  S-s-s-t-o-k-e-e,     s-lutter;     read — read — read     it. 


370  THE    BETRAYAL 

Dunno — how — ter — ter — ter  read ;  dunno— dunno — 
how — as-s-s  how — ter  read-d " 

"  Her-r-re,  Perfessor;  you  read  this  her-r-re  let- 
ter-r-r.  Stover-r  says  as  how  he  ain't  over-r  an' 
above  well." 

"  CHARLOTTESVILLE,  VIRGINIA. 
"To  My  Fellow  Countrymen  of  Fauquier: 

"  It  is  with  deep  regret  that  I  have  to  say  that  I  shall  be 
unable  to  address  your  gathering  Saturday  afternoon. 
Until  the  last  moment — yesterday — like  Banquo's  ghost,  I 
thought  that  I  should  stalk  amongst  you;  but  illness  detains 
me  here,  so  I  send  my  best  wishes  to  your  meeting.  How 
ever,  I  shall  be  with  you  in  mind,  although  not  in  body,  and 
I  shall  pray  God  to  let  His  spirit  permeate  your  meeting, 
that  you  may  work  out  His  glory  and  hasten  the  coming  of 
His  kingdom. 

"  Yours  in  the  Lord, 

"JOHN  HENRY  JONES. 

"  Tuesday  morning." 

"Glory  ter  Gawd — ef  a  Baptist  done  say  it! 
Glory  ter  Gawd!  Glory — glory — gl " 

Then  the  gleam  that  had  lit  up  the  sorrowing 
mind  of  Stover  again  left  the  chairman  to  the  de 
spair  of  melancholy. 

No  letter  from  great  Timothy  was  read.  General 
Murphy  did  not  write  letters. 

In  and  about  Warrenton  the  reputation  of  the 
gentleman  from  Salem  as  an  orator  was  not  well  es 
tablished;  so  the  Reverend  Doctor  Berkeley,  more 
than  usually  inflated  by  pride — and  meat  and  drink — 
proceeded  to  introduce  the  visitor,  the  while  Mr. 
Williams,  preacher,  gnawed  the  shin  of  a  bullock. 
Notwithstanding  the  burdens  that  he  had  to  bear, 
the  doctor  succeeded  in  working  out  an  introductory 


THE     BETRAYAL  371 

speech  that  he  believed  to  be  of  unusual  excellence. 
The  style  and  wording  he  had  copied  largely  from 
the  oration  that  was  made  by  Minetree  when  he  nom 
inated  John  Randolph  Harrison  in  the  Richmond 
convention.  He  advanced  toward  the  whiskey  barrel, 
took  a  sip  of  the  fluid  that  looked  like  water,  paused, 
mopped  his  brow  with  a  red  cloth,  with  a  great 
sweeping  movement  of  first  one  arm  and  then  the 
other.  Little  did  he  care  for  Mr.  Johnson's  repu 
tation.  He  thought  only  of  his  own. 

"  Gemmen  an'  Feller-cit'zens :  Hit  hav  fell  ter 
me  de  pledger  ob  presentin'  ter  you  ter-day  .one  ob 
dem  statements  dat  ken  talk  as  well  as  write,  an'  ken 
write  as  well  as  talk.  He  name  am  known  from  de 
mountain  ter  de  sea ;  from  Dan  ter  Beersheba ;  from 
Warrenton  ter  Salem,  whar  he  hail  from — he  feller- 
cit'zens  distrusts  him  wid  de  keys  ter  open  de  do' 
ter  de  legislater,  an'  he  state  done  brag  'bout  de 
defiance  ob  he  character,  an'  de  platfo'm  ob  he  in 
tentions. 

"  Dis  extinguished  gemman  frum  Ro'noke  county 
will  speechify  ter  you  ter-day,  an',  Mistah  Cheerman 
an'  Gemman  ob  de  'Sembly,  I  has  de  honor  ter 
present  ter  you  de  name  ob — de  name  ob — de  name 

"  Nigger,  tell  me — say  hit  quiet-lek, — nigger,  what 
you  say  yo'  name  is  ?  " 

"  Hon'ble  Buck  Johnson." 

"  De  statement  what  am  wid  us  ter-day  trabled 
all  las'  night  ter  injunction  he  presence  hyah,  an'  hit 
gins  me  pledger,  midst  mah  own  feller-cit'zens,  ter 
present  er  gemman  dat  hab  got  de  sterility  ter  sub- 
stidise  he  promise,  an'  de  name  ob  dat  gemman  am 
Hon'able— Hon'able " 


372  THE    BETRAYAL 

Now  was  the  good  doctor  indeed  "sweatin'  and 
a-sweatin'  out  words." 

"  Fo'  Gawd's  sake,  nigger,  say  hit  agin:  What 
am  yo'  name?  " 

"  Hon'ble  Buck  Johnson." 

"  Dis  hyah  man  say  he  name's  Hon'ble  Buck 
Johnson." 

With  that  the  reverend  candidate  sat  down. 

The  Honourable  Buck  rose,  made  a  dignified  bow, 
and  proceeded  with  his  oration.  First  he  told  how 
General  Murphy  was  the  friend  of  the  coloured 
man ;  how  he  had  promised  equal  rights,  a  free  ballot, 
and  social  equality  to  all  the  coloured  race;  and  then 
he  told  them  in  his  choicest  language  that  it  was 
important  for  them  to  follow  the  man  that  really 
meant  to  free  the  people — the  people  now  held  in 
bondage  as  they  had  not  been  bound  before  the 
war. 

"  Hyah  you's  callin'  an'  er-callin'  yo'sel's  free 
fer  mighty  nigh  fifteen  year,  an'  how  free  is  you? 
Ef  you  votes  for  Readjusters, — say  now,  boss,  does 
you  hear  me?  I  don'  believe  you  does;  stop  snorin' 
so  loud,  fo'  Gawd"s  sake, — ef  yo'  votes  fo'  Read 
justers,  it  mean  dat  Gen'l  Murphy'll  see  dat  you  hab 
de  pribilege  ob  settin'  in  de  dress  circul  'long  wid 
de  big  bugs  ter  de  th'atre  an'  er-gittin'  inter  all  de 
hotels,  an'  er-mixin' " 

The  crowd  cheered  wildly;  indeed  joyously — when 
we  consider  that  a  negro  was  cheered. 

"Hurrah  for  Murphy!  Hurrah,  hurrah,  hurrah! 
Hurrah  for  Johnson  !  Hurrah,  hurrah,  hurrah  !  " 

"Hoop-la!     Hurrah  fer  hell!" 

Now  the  chairman  was  aroused.  His  red  whiskers 
stood  out  like  the  quills  of  a  porcupine;  he  seized 


THE    BETRAYAL  373 

the  pitcher  of  near-water  and  slung  it  against  the 
head  of  the  gentleman  from  Salem.  The  near-water 
flowed  sluggishly  off  the  platform,  and  trickled  into 
the  mouth  of  a  yellow  youth.  The  pitcher  was  in 
jured. 

"  Hurrah  fer  Johnson  nothin'  ! — hurrah  fer  no 
nigger  nothin'  ! — hurrah  fer  Mr.  Temple  fer  Con 
gress,  I  says ! " 

In  time  the  smith  was  subdued — he  wept,  and  even 
used  words  that  your  narrators  may  not  repeat  with 
out  being  sacrilegious.  Mr.  Johnson  wiped  the  near- 
water  from  his  face,  retiring  in  favour  of  Professor 
George  Washington  Lafayette  Simpson,  who  ad 
dressed  the  multitude. 

The  highways  on  barbecue  night  were  made  hid 
eous  by  the  drunken  orgies  and  yells  of  those  that 
had  taken  part  in  the  political  events  of  the  day.  Of 
all  the  elements,  the  one  best  loved  by  the  negro  is 
fire.  There  was  fire  that  night  in  every  direction. 
The  time-honoured  hatred  of  the  low-grade  white 
for  the  one-grade  black,  and  of  the  black  for  the 
yeoman  and  the  peasant,  had  been  fanned  into  fury 
by  the  self-assertiveness  of  the  negro.  Barns  and 
hay-stacks  burned  brilliantly. 

Social  equality  is  impossible  between  the  white  of 
any  class  and  the  negro.  But  Murphy  had  not 
tried  the  impossible.  He  had  merely  meant  to  es 
tablish  political  unity,  in  which  white  and  black 
temporarily  would  lay  aside  their  differences  to  vote 
for  a  common  reward,  freedom — freedom  as  they 
saw  it. 

And  how  would  those  men  vote — the  men  that  con 
stituted  the  barbecue  crowd?  Was  Murphy  right,  or 


374  THE    BETRAYAL 

was  Daingerfield  right?  Would  they  be  bound  by 
the  habits  and  traditions  of  three  centuries — or  would 
they  fall  down  and  worship  these  strange  new  gods? 
Was  there  a  man  in  that  day — is  there  a  man  in  our 
time — that  confidently  could  or  can  foresee  the  re 
sult  of  balloting?  Was  a  party  ever  so  weak  that 
it  did  not  loom  as  large  as  the  Great  Pyramid  before 
its  opponent  party? 

Under  the  rules  of  government  by  which  these 
states  that  are  more  or  less  united  are  controlled,  the 
longest  period  of  time  under  which  our  destinies 
reasonably  may  be  foretold  is  four  years.  And 
under  these  same  rules  these  peoples  every  four 
years  to  a  discernible  extent  lose  any  national  char 
acteristic  that  they  may  possess. 

The  Dabneys  had  finished  breakfast;  family  pray 
ers  were  said ;  the  day  was  Sunday ;  August  the  month 
— a  summer  Sunday  morning  in  Virginia.  Every 
where  was  rest.  Nature,  who  is  never  idle  in  Vir 
ginia,  lazily  went  about  her  duties;  bees  slothfully 
gathered  their  honey  from  the  white  clover;  hum 
ming-birds  thrust  their  long  beaks  into  the  hearts  of 
flowers  with  less  than  their  wonted  energy;  the  liquid 
warmth  of  the  sun  flowed  sluggishly  along  the  white 
board  fence  that  enclosed  the  lawn,  until  the  waves 
of  heat  reached  the  massive  iron  posts  of  the  great 
gates  of  the  manor,  against  which  they  leaped  with 
sudden  fury,  splashing  high  into  the  air;  cock-robin, 
with  his  red  breast,  his  dignity  despite  his  strut 
greater  than  that  of  any  other  bird  that  sings,  helped 
his  mate  teach  tbeir  fledgelings  to  fly,  while  the  mock 
ing-bird,  who  sings  by  night  as  he  sings  by  day,  sang 
for  the  robin  family  one  of  those  noble  songs  that 


THE    BETRAYAL  375 

Tschaikowsky,  for  all  his  wild  fantasies,  was  unable 
to  reproduce  in  the  music  of  man ;  boughs  of  the  lofty 
elms  continuously  made  obeisance  to  the  gentle 
breezes.  In  a  distant  field  cows  were  browsing; 
sheep  were  about  the  lawn;  old  Tabby,  her  eyes 
half-closed,  watched  the  capers  of  her  little  ones; 
Cicero's  huge  head  rested  drowsily  upon  his  two 
front  paws.  The  chariot  that  for  sixty  years  had 
conveyed  the  Dabneys  upon  family  occasions  was  in 
front  of  the  stables,  polished,  and  ready  for  service. 
Aunt  Dinah,  dressed  in  her  best  print,  had  laid 
aside  the  red  bandanna  that  usually  covered  her 
head  and  had  combed  out  the  kinks  of  hair  that  for 
a  week  had  been  wrapped  tightly  with  black  thread 
and  concealed  by  the  handkerchief.  Everywhere 
was  peace — the  peace  of  Sunday  morning  in  Vir 
ginia. 

The  family  heir  apparent,  the  only  son,  had  been 
nominated  by  his  party  for  the  governorship.  This 
Sunday  morning  finds  him  at  home.  He  had  re 
turned  the  night  before  from  Danville,  where  he 
had  delivered  the  last  of  the  series  of  addresses  of 
his  southwestern  campaign.  The  old  general  was 
in  the  library,  reading  over  the  lesson  for  the  day. 
The  young  man  joined  his  sister,  who  was  seated 
under  a  vine  of  honeysuckle  that  partly  enclosed  the 
verandah. 

"  Betty,  Miss  Gladys  Lancaster  is  at  the  Warren- 
Green  again." 

Miss  Betty's  eyes  were  mischievous. 

"  Now,  Gary,  we  will  not  talk  about  Gladys  Lan 
caster — not  on  Sunday." 

"  I  am  going  driving  with  her  this  afternoon,  and 
I  wish  to  bring  her  here  to  supper." 


376  THE    BETRAYAL 

"Gary  Dabney! — are  you  crazy?  Do  you  mean 
to  tell  me  that  you  are  going  driving  with  a  girl 
Sunday  evening?  What  kind  of  girl  is  she  to  accept 
your  invitation  to  supper  here?  " 

Mr.  Dabney  did  not  reply.  For  ten  minutes  he 
brought  his  fine  mind,  so  well  trained  in  the  law, 
to  bear  on  her  questions,  but  was  unable  to  work 
out  answers. 

Miss  Betty  the  while  read  The  Form  of  Solemn 
isation  of  Matrimony  from  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  that  she  had  brought  out  on  the  verandah. 
Although  she  found  the  marriage  service  as  inter 
esting  as  a  novel,  every  now  and  then  she  would 
glance  furtively  at  her  brother.  The  tender-hearted 
Betty  was  sorry.  But  she  read  the  marriage  service 
to  the  end;  for  while  every  Virginian  girl  of  her  age 
has  read  that  service  a  score  of  times,  each  time 
it  is  essentially  new.  After  she  had  read  the  service 
through  she  turned  back  to  her  favourite  part:  "  Then 
shall  they  give  their  troth  to  each  other  in  this  manner. 
The  Minister,  receiving  the  Woman  at  her  father's 
or  friend's  hands,  shall  cause  the  Man  with  his  right 
hand  to  take  the  Woman  by  her  right  hand,  and  to 
say  after  him  as  followeth."  These  words  described 
a  scene  that  Miss  Betty  frequently  had  in  mind — 
one  that  had  been  forced  upon  her  fancy  by  Byrd 
Dandridge  time  and  again. 

Her  brother  still  sat  there,  his  brow  clouded,  per 
plexity  in  his  every  attitude.  Finally  she  rose,  went 
behind  his  chair,  put  her  arms  around  his  neck,  and 
kissed  his  hair.  Then  she  went  around  in  front  of 
him,  leaned  against  the  trellis  and  the  honeysuckle 
a  bit  nonchalantly,  her  finger  marking  the  place  of 


THE    BETRAYAL  377 

the  marriage  service  in  the  partly  closed  prayer-book 
that  she  held  in  her  left  hand,  and  plucked  the  yellow 
honeysuckle  tubes  with  her  right  hand.  Still  her 
brother  was  silent. 

"  Er — er — er,  Gary,  if  you  are  in  love  with  Gladys 
Lancaster — engaged  to  her — I  will  go  at  once  to 
call  on  her,  and  then  I  will  ask  her  to  take  supper 
with  us." 

"  If  you  will  go  to  see  her  I  shall  be  glad.  But 
I  am  not  engaged  to  her.  Several  times  she  has  re 
fused  to  marry  me." 

"  Maybe  you  have  not  asked  her  often  enough 
and  earnestly  enough." 

"  I  have  asked  her  a  thousand  times." 
"  One  would  have  to  ask  me  a  great  deal  oftener." 
He  took  the  hand  that  was  pulling  the  honey 
suckle  blooms  and  kissed  it.     And  Betty — well,  the 
sister  that  loves  her  brother  has  a  load  of  sorrow 
to  bear  the  day  that  he  tells  her  that  he  loves,  how 
ever  beautiful  and  noble  the  girl.    Miss  Betty  loved 
her  brother. 

The  Dabneys  as  they  drove  toward  town  were 
overtaken  by  Mrs.  Rice  and  her  daughters,  who  also 
were  members  of  St.  James  Church.  Dr.  Reginald 
Launcelot  would  join  his  mother  and  sisters  just  be 
fore  the  sermon.  Candidate  Rice,  still  faithful  to 
his  Baptist  faith,  had  already  driven  over  to  his 
church — but  not  before  his  good  spouse  had  again 
tried  to  unify  the  religious  atmosphere  of  the  Rice 
house  on  the  Rice  estate. 

"James  P.,  I  du-u-u  wish  you'd  stop  a-goin'  with 
them  vulgar  Baptists,  an'  jine  with  them  as  goes  to 


378  THE    BETRAYAL 

St.  James.  I  jest  think  you  owes  it  to  our  gyurls 
to  leave  off  'sociatin'  with  them  there  Baptist  vul- 
gars." 

"  Now,  maw,  you  knows  I  don't  believe  in  no 
religion  that  don't  wash  a  sinner  clean.  Them  'Pis- 
kelopians  is  still  got  the  dirt  of  sin  stickin'  to  them 
as  they  was  born  in.  Parson  Jones  was  out  to  our 
church  some  eight  Sundays  agone,  an'  he  says,  says 
he:  'Brethren,  "Wash,  an'  be  clean."  I  remember 
them  words,  word  for  word,  jest  as  he  said  them. 
'Brethren,  "Wash,  an'  be  clean,"  an'  can  all  the 
waters  of  the  seven  seas  clean  one  garment  that's 
stained  with  sin?  Nay,  we  must  be  born  again — 
pure  in  heart,  scoured  clean  by  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb, — them  waters  of  Baptism.  Sprinkling  ain't 
enough ;  you  have  got  to  be  baptised.  Brethren,  there 
ain't  no  other  way  as  I  can  see  to  salvation.  Bap 
tism  by  dippin'  is  the  only  way  the  Good  Word 
says.'  Them  was  pow'ful  words;  an'  I  tell  you, 
maw,  you  an'  our  gyurls  is  goin'  straight  to  perdi 
tion  if  you  don't  let  them  'Piskelopians  alone.  If 
they's  to  be  washed  at  all,  they  needs  a  bath,  for 
Gawd  knows  they's  dirty  enough.  An'  you  have 
gone  an'  took  along  Reg'nal'  La'nc'lot  with  you — 
an'  that  boy  might  have  been  a  Baptist  preacher." 

"  Land's  sakes,  James  P.,  you  oughter  been  a 
preacher!  " 

"  Mebbe  so,  maw;  I  allers  thought  as  how  I  was 
cut  out  for  a  Baptist  parson — one  of  them  preachers 
as  ain't  got  no  pretences,  except  jest  bein'  good.  I 
ain't  got  no  use  for  them  'Piskelopian  cler-gy-mens, 
as  they  calls  theirselves — uniformed  angels  is  what 
I  done  called  them  before  you  an'  the  gyurls  an' 
Reg'nal'  La'nc'lot  took  up  with  that  outlan'ish 


THE    BETRAYAL  379 

Romish  church,  an'  that's  how  Baptists  calls  them 
now,  an'  allers  will  call  them, — uniformed  angels." 

"  You  shore  oughter  be  ashamed  of  yourself, 
James  P.,  carryin'  on  that  fashion.  Whoever  hearn 
of  a  Baptist  or  a  Presbyterian  or  a  Meth'dist  preacher 
a-wearin'  business  clothin'  when  they  goes  about  their 
business  in  an'  out  of  the  pulpit.  They's  hearse 
drivers,  all  of  them ;  hearse  drivers  with  funeral  faces, 
a-moanin'  for  their  'suasions.  I  ain't  got  no  mo'  use 
for  them  liveried  gents  that's  too  good  to  dress  like 
other  folks  an'  not  good  enough  to  dress  like  Gawd's 
saints." 

Not  until  yeoman  and  peasant  invaded  the  Episco 
palian  church  as  equals  of  aristocrats  therein,  shortly 
before  these  matters  were  discussed  in  the  Rice  fam 
ily,  did  church  dissensions  arise  in  Virginia.  The 
gentry  respected  all  denominations,  save  Roman 
Catholic,  and  believed  Baptist  and  Methodist  forms 
of  worship  were  well  suited  to  yeoman  and  peasant 
needs.  Episcopalians  and  Presbyterians  sometimes 
clashed,  in  a  gentle  sort  of  way,  largely  due,  said 
the  Episcopalians,  to  Presbyterian  imitation  of  their 
ways.  "They  raised  an  awful  howl,"  said  the  in 
heritors  of  the  Church  of  England,  "when  we 
placed  organs  in  our  churches,  sang  by  note,  organ 
ised  choirs,  and  decorated  our  edifices  with  cut 
flowers  and  growing  plants.  They  said  that  we 
were  children  of  the  Pope.  But  their  howls  were 
soon  lost  in  imitation.  In  copying  us  they  went 
to  extremes,  introducing  horns  and  other  brass  band 
instruments  into  their  meeting-houses."  The  late 
Bishop  Whipple  would  not  consent  to  floral  decora 
tions  in  his  diocese  so  long  as  he  lived,  and  he 
died  only  a  few  years  ago.  The  innovations  of 


380  THE    BETRAYAL 

recent  years  were  made  by  ambitious  yeomen  and 
peasants,  who  really  were  responsible  for  the  divi 
sion  of  the  Virginia  church  into  high  churchmen  and 
low  churchmen.  They  did  what  they  could  to  make 
a  society  church  out  of  the  Church  of  England  as 
inherited  by  Virginia  and  to  turn  the  services  into 
"  social  functions." 

When  the  Dabney  chariot  drew  up  to  the  St. 
James  door  Miss  Betty  immediately  entered  the 
church,  knelt  for  one  minute  in  silent  prayer,  then 
went  a-visiting  from  pew  to  pew,  as  did  the  other 
ladies  assembled.  General  Dabney  and  his  son 
joined  the  men  that  were  gathered  about  the  church 
grounds.  A  few  of  the  men  only  had  gone  into 
the  edifice.  Soon  Dr.  Nelson  would  enter  the  chan 
cel  and  kneel  for  one  minute  in  silent  prayer;  the 
organ  would  be  played  softly,  and  the  men  would 
enter  as  the  clergyman  would  begin  to  read,  "  The 
Lord  is  in  his  holy  temple:  let  all  the  earth  keep 
silence  before  him." 

But  now  the  men  were  about  the  church  grounds, 
talking  in  well  modulated  tones,  although  not  with 
out  animation.  The  crops  always  were  discussed. 
None  would  admit  that  his  fields  were  in  a  normal 
condition.  No  planter  was  ever  satisfied. 

Among  those  outside  the  church  when  General 
Dabney  and  his  son  arrived  were  Judge  Braxton, 
Captain  Lancaster,  Mr.  Carter,  Colonel  Dainger- 
field,  Mr.  Tazewell,  and  Mr.  Taliaferro.  The  young 
sculptor  had  come  over  from  Richmond  for  a  few 
days. 

The  soft  music  of  the  organ  being  heard,  the  men 
entered  the  church.  The  old  men  knelt  down  for 


THE     BETRAYAL  381 

one  minute  of  silent  prayer;  the  young  men  that  had 
been  confirmed  bent  over  the  backs  of  the  seats  in 
front  of  them,  and  prayed  silently  for  one  minute; 
the  young  men  that  had  not  been  confirmed  stood 
until  the  last  words  of  the  exhortation,  then  some  of 
them  bent  forward  during  the  prayer  of  the  general 
confession,  some  leaned  their  heads  upon  their  right 
hands,  and  some  sat  bolt  upright. 

Miss  Lancaster,  who  had  not  come  with  her  father, 
arrived  during  the  recital  of  the  Venite.  Her  hat 
was  as  conspicuous  as  it  was  beautiful;  her  dress 
swept  first  one  and  then  the  other  side  of  the  aisle, 
and  when  she  reached  the  pew  in  which  her  father 
was  seated  the  captain  gallantly  helped  her  into  it, 
for  she  seemed  to  need  his  aid.  On  each  cheek  was 
a  small  black  patch,  and  one  was  on  her  dimpled 
chin. 

Colonel  Daingerfield  and  Captain  Lancaster  had 
sat  up  with  a  poker  game  until  a  quarter  to  twelve 
the  night  before.  The  stakes  had  been  rather  high, 
yet  none  too  high  for  Virginian  gentlemen.  The 
colonel,  a  vestryman  of  St.  James,  and  the  captain, 
the  treasurer  of  Christ  Church,  in  Charlottesville, 
brought  forth  their  great  prayer-books,  of  quarto 
size;  each  adjusted  his  glasses  on  his  nose,  and  then 
each  read  the  service  with  solemnity  and  reverence. 
These  gentlemen  loved  God,  and  each  in  his  own  way 
served  Him;  but  they  saw  no  reason  why  they 
should  not  play  poker  until  a  quarter  of  an  hour 
before  Sunday. 

There  was  no  choir  during  summer.  Dr.  Nelson 
would  read  the  first  verse  of  one  of  his  favourite 
hymns,  then  would  usually  lead  the  large  congre 
gation  in  singing.  As  he  was  hoarse  to-day,  he  re- 


382  THE     BETRAYAL 

quested  some  one  to  lead  the  hymn  for  him.  There 
was  no  response  for  some  time,  but  after  a  while 
Miss  Polly  Boiling  arose.  Her  voice  was  not  so 
young  as  it  was  forty  years  before,  but  she  tried. 
Then,  receiving  no  assistance  for  the  first  two  lines, 
bowed  low  toward  the  chancel. 

"  Dr.  Nelson,  I  can  not;  sir,  I  can  not! " 

Whereupon  Dr.  Nelson  read  through  Cardinal 
Newman's  great  sacred  song. 

During  the  offertory,  played  by  Miss  Betty  Dab- 
ney,  Judge  Braxton,  Mr.  Carter,  Colonel  Dainger- 
field,  and  General  Dabney  passed  around  the  old 
silver  plates,  into  which  ladies  put  ten  cents,  young 
men  twenty-five  cents,  and  old  men  one  dollar.  Miss 
Gladys  dumped  in  three  cents. 

The  aristocrats  of  Fauquier  were  assembled.  The 
only  members  of  a  lower  class  present  were  the 
Rice  girls  and  their  mother — no,  also  there  was  Dr. 
Reginald  Launcelot  Rice,  seated  near  the  middle  of 
the  church,  alone  in  a  pew.  His  face  was  flushed, 
and  he  read  the  service  in  thick,  uncertain  tones. 

Captain  Temple  also  sat  alone.  Apparently  no 
one  saw  him. 

Mr.  Harrison,  who  had  been  campaigning  for 
six  weeks,  occupied  the  Harrison  family  pew.  He 
too  was  alone.  No — again  no;  in  spirit  there  was 
with  Captain  Temple  the  lovely  Dorothea  Annabel; 
in  spirit  the  beautiful  Lelia  Braxton  was  with  Mr. 
Harrison.  Captain  Temple  appeared  to  be  indiffer 
ent  to  his  surroundings.  Mr.  Harrison  sat  with 
his  teeth  clenched,  and  all  might  have  seen,  had  they 
looked  in  his  direction,  that  the  tall,  proud  young 
man,  every  inch  a  Harrison,  keenly  felt  that  he  was 
not  welcomed  in  assemblages  of  his  father's  friends 


THE    BETRAYAL  383 

and  those  that  had  been  his  friends.  And  now  and 
then  John  Harrison  would  see  Lelia  Braxton's  pale 
face,  and  also  he  would  see  the  painful  solemnity 
of  Judge  Braxton,  the  man  whose  good  opinion  he 
valued  above  that  of  all  other  men. 

In  a  corner  to  the  right  of  the  chancel  sat  Byrd 
Dandridge — a  good  seat  for  that  young  giant,  for 
in  looking  toward  the  minister  he  could  not  help 
seeing  the  fair  young  organist  on  the  other  side  of 
the  chancel.  But  one  doubts  if  Mr.  Dandridge 
would  have  seen  Dr.  Nelson  had  Miss  Dabney  sat 
in  any  other  part  of  the  church.  Yet,  he  could  not 
see  her  eyes,  for  she  looked  directly  at  the  rector's 
face. 

Mr.  Dabney  joined  Miss  Lancaster  as  she  left  the 
church. 

"  Well,  Gary,  I  thought  you  came  with  papa  and 
little  sister!  Why  don't  you  go  back  with  them?" 

"  I  intend  to  walk  home  with  you." 

"That  certainly  was  a  fine  sermon  Dr.  Nelson 
preached." 

"What  was  it  about?" 

"Now,  Gary,  didn't  you  hear  that  sermon?" 

"No." 

"Then  I  shan't  tell  it  to  you.     I'm  no  preacher." 

"  But  you  have  learned  to  say  no." 

"  I'll  learn  to  say  yes — by  the  time  you're  gov 
ernor." 

"  I  may  never  be  governor." 

"But  I'm  learning  to  say  yes,  all  the  same;  for 
John  will  be  elected  if  you're  not,  and  Harrison  is 
a  prettier  name  than  Dabney.  Now,  now,  poor 
little  boy !  Don't  you  mind ! — I  think  Gary  a  much 


384  THE    BETRAYAL 

prettier  name  than  John.  John  is  so  common,  isn't 
it?" 

"  Not  more  so  than  James." 

"  Oh,  but  Captain  Temple's  middle  name  and  last 
name  are  so  beautiful !  If  I  were  his  wife  (and  they 
say  he'll  be  elected  to  Congress,  and  may  go  higher) 
I'd  cut  the  Jim  part  often  his  name.  I'd  call  him 
Spotty  for  short." 

"Gladys,  I— I " 

"  I'll  be  out  to  tea  this  evening.  Be  sure  you  call 
for  me  at  just  the  right  minute." 

Whereupon  Mr.  Cary  Gordon  Dabney  lapsed  into 
silence. 

"Hold,  Ned!  Whoa,  Monterey!  Whoa,  Buena 
Vista.  Mr.  Dandridge,  come;  dine  with  us  to-day." 

Mr.  Dandridge  entered  the  Dabney  chariot.  He 
had  planned  this  encounter.  His  the  victory.  He 
took  the  seat  of  the  absent  son. 

"A  beautiful  day,  Mr.  Dandridge!" 

'"Yes,  sir." 

"Are  you  making  material  progress  in  clearing 
your  woodland  farm?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"  You  must  find  the  work — which  I  understand 
that  you  do  alone,  with  your  own  strong  arms — 
very  arduous." 

"No,  sir." 

"  You  have  not  taken  dinner  with  us  for  a  long 
while,  Mr.  Dandridge.  Sir,  we  miss  your  bright 
face  at  our  board." 

"No,  sir;  I  thank  you,  sir." 

"Git  up,  Monterey!  Git  up,  Buena  Vista! — 
drive  up,  Ned;  drive  up!" 


THE    BETRAYAL  385 

"Do  you  work  in  gloves,  Mr.  Dandridge?" 

"No,  Miss  Betty." 

"  I  should  think  you  would  work  in  gloves." 

"  I  found  that  they  bothered  me." 

"  Miss  Polly  Boiling  says  that  you  work  from 
daybreak  until  after  dark.  Why  do  you  work  so 
hard,  Mr.  Dandridge?  No  one  else  works  so  hard, 
and  you  have  nobody  to  work  for." 

"  I  am  working  for — I  am — I  am " 

"  Now,  Mr.  Dandridge,  you  are  just  working  for 
yourself,  to  pile  up  more  money  than  you  will  ever 
be  able  to  use !  And  you  are  the  only  gentleman 
that  I  know  that  works  with  his  hands." 

After  dinner  General  Dabney,  leaving  his  daugh 
ter  and  Mr.  Dandridge  on  the  verandah,  retired  to 
his  study.  The  young  man's  siege  of  gentle  Betty's 
heart  had  been  laid  for  a  long  time.  All  along  his 
strategy  had  included  the  tactics  of  assault.  He 
never  lost  an  opportunity  to  storm  the  fortress;  but 
he  had  never  succeeded  in  scaling  the  first  wall,  as 
he  thought.  This  afternoon  he  renewed  the  attack. 

"  Miss  Betty,  I  want  to  marry  you." 

"  That  is  not  the  way  to  talk  on  Sunday,  Mr. 
Dandridge.  Besides,  I  have  told  you  more  than  a 
thouand  times  that  I  shall  never  marry  you ;  I  shall 
not  marry;  father  needs  me  home.  So  does  Gary." 

"  I  need  you." 

"Why,  the  idea!  That  is  so  funny;  a  great  big 
man  like  you,  who  cuts  down  five  big  oak  trees  every 
day,  needs  poor  little  me.  That  is  childish  of  you." 

"/  need  you." 

"Well,  my  duty  is  very  plain;  the  claim  of  my 
father  and  my  brother  certainly  is  greater  than  yours, 


386  THE    BETRAYAL 

and  my  duty  is  to  them.  Why,  sometimes  I  feel 
that  I  hardly  know  you — although  our  acquaintance 
does  go  back  a  long  time." 

This  view  had  not  occurred  to  Mr.  Dandridge, 
so  he  said  no  more  for  ten  minutes. 

'  Thou  shalt  leave  thy  father  and  thy  mother 
and  cleave  unto  thy  wife.' ' 

"  I  think  that  you  should  cleave  unto  your  wife, 
Mr.  Dandridge, — when  you  get  one." 

The  attack  was  again  suspended  for  ten  minutes. 

"  One's  highest  duty  is  to  one's  love." 

"  I    think  so  too,   Mr.  Dandridge." 

"Then,  Miss  Betty,  I  ask  you  again:  will  you 
marry  me? — now?" 

"And  I  say  again,  Mr.  Dandridge, — no!  " 

"Why?" 

"  Because  my  plain  duty  is  to  my  father  and  my 
brother.  Besides,  this  is  Sunday  afternoon,  and  it 
is  wicked  to  talk  that  way  on  Sunday." 

"You  are  always  right,  Miss  Betty,  I  know;  but 
I  don't  seem  to  see  why  it  is  wicked  for  me  to  love 
you  on  Sunday.  I  love  you  all  the  time." 

The  silence  lasted  half  an  hour. 

"  Now,  Mr.  Dandridge,  I  must  go  to  my  room 
and  read  my  Bible,  or  father  will  be  angry  with  me." 

She  always  dismissed  him,  for  he  never  had  a 
sense  of  time  while  he  was  with  her. 

"Good-evening,  Mrs.  Rice!" 

"  Law,  if  it  ain't  Cap'n  Temple.  Du-u-u  come 
right  in,  Cap'n,  an'  rest  your  hat  a  while.  There 
ain't  no  company  in  the  parlour — exceptin'  Perfessor 
Simpson  an'  Mr.  Stokes.  I  certainly  is  right  glad  to 
see  you  again." 


THE     BETRAYAL  387 

11 1  saw  you  in  church  this  morning,  Mrs.  Rice. 
Since  then  I  have  been  unable  to  curb  my  impatience, 
so  great  has  been  my  longing  to  enjoy  the  hospitality 
of  this  beautiful  home  on  these  broad  acres." 

"  Law,  now,  Cap'n  Temple,  but  you  du-u-u  say 
sech  lovely  things.  Now  set  right  down  in  this  here 
arm-cheer  an'  wait  a  minute.  Dorothea  Annabel! 
Dorothea  Annabel!  Dor-o-th-ea  An-na-bel!" 

"Yes?" 

"  Cap'n  Temple." 

"  As  I  wus  sayin' " 

"You  shore  is  always  a-sayin',  Mr.  Stokes; 
a-sayin',  an'  a-sayin',  an'  a-sayin',  an'  that's  Gawd's 
truth." 

«  Wa-al " 

"  Wa-al,  wa-al,  wa-al ! — talk's  cheap,  but  money 
buys  the  Ian'  !  " 

"  Wa-al,  your  pa  sa-ays  as  how  I  hev  bought  a 
r-r-right  nice  little  piece  o'  prop'ty  up  the  road." 

"  Miss  Eugenie  Victoria,  you  are  rather  severe. 
This  morning,  in  church,  your  piety  was  one  of  the 
pleasures  of  the  service." 

"  This  here  man,  Cap'n  Temple,  would  try  the 
patience  of  a  saint,  he  would, — an'  that's  Gawd's 
truth." 

"When  did  you  return,   Captain?" 

"  Early  this  morning,  Professor,  just  in  time  for 
church;  and,  I  can  tell  you,  I  was  glad  of  the  brief 
surcease  of  labour,  after  continuously  campaigning 
for  six  weeks." 

"  Dorothea  Annabel !    Dor-o-th-ea  An-na-bel " 

"Yes,  mother?" 

"  Cap'n  Temple." 

"  I'll  be  down  in  a  moment,  mother  dear." 


388  THE    BETRAYAL 

Miss  Dorothea  Annabel  had  been  dressed  since 
seven,  with  the  exception  of  additional  prinkings 
every  few  minutes,  and  now  the  hour  was  eight.  She 
soon  tripped  lightly  down  the  stairs,  a  creation  in 
pink;  her  silk  dress,  the  material  of  which  was  bought 
in  Baltimore,  was  pink;  she  wore  pink  slippers;  a 
single  pink  rose  was  fastened  in  her  corsage;  a  nar 
row  band  of  pink  ribbon  bound  her  hair  as  if  she 
were  a  Grecian  maiden,  and  pink  roses  were  in  her 
cheeks. 

Captain  Temple  bowed  low  over  the  hand  that 
she  extended  to  him — the  hand  without  a  jewel,  yet 
the  hand  that  was  a  jewel. 

"  Wa-al,  I  thought  as  how  the  nasty  habit  o'  kissin' 
hands  had  quit  even  in  Virginny — leastwise,  nobody 
never-r-r  kisses  no  woman's  hand  wher-r-re  I  comes 
frum." 

But  Miss  Eugenie  Victoria  and  Miss  Phyllis 
Daphne  could  not  but  wish  that  Mr.  Stokes  and  Pro 
fessor  Simpson  had  manners  quite  so  beautiful  as 
those  of  Captain  Temple. 

"  Law  now,  Mr.  Stokes,  I  remember  how  Miss 
Mary  Caperton,  who's  now  Miss  Braxton,  the  judge's 
lady,  used  to  have  more'n  enough  young  men  kissin' 
of  her  purtty  hand — a-kissin'  of  it  every  time  they 
come  around." 

And  then  Mrs.  Rice  could  have  bitten  off  her 
tongue.  How  could  she  have  been  so  stupid  as  to 
have  referred  to  the  days  when  she  was  Mrs.  Brax- 
ton's  maid ! 

The  captain  evidently  had  not  heard;  for  with  the 
grace  that  so  greatly  pleased  Mrs.  Rice  and  her 
daughters,  he  bowed  low  as  Mrs.  Rice  was  speaking 
and  offered  his  arm  to  Miss  Dorothea  Annabel. 


THE    BETRAYAL  389 

"  Miss  Dorothea,  see  yonder  moon !  She  comes 
a-stealing  from  among  the  wild  roses  that  are  cling 
ing  to  their  cold  lattice-lover,  through  the  open  win 
dow,  into  this  room,  and  calls  upon  us  to  go  forth 
into  the  night,  to  walk  abroad  along  the  wide  lanes 
of  your  flowering  garden,  o'er  which  she  has  cast  her 
silvery  sheen.  See  yonder  roses!  They  bow  before 
your  loveliness,  as  gently  to  and  fro  they  are  swayed 
by  the  soft  winds  of  the  night.  Come,  haste  to  the 
garden,  that  you  may  be  one  with  the  loveliness  of 
Night." 

Nor  did  the  stars  that  shone  upon  that  garden  seem 
to  Temple  to  sparkle  as  did  the  eyes  of  Dorothea 
Annabel;  nor  is  the  lustre  of  the  stars  equal  to  the 
light  of  love  that  is  in  a  maiden's  eyes. 

"  Dorothea  Annabel,  my  little  Dolly,  now  I  see 
you  alone  for  the  first  time  in  six  weeks — six  weeks 
that  to  me  have  seemed  six  long  years.  But  I  have 
carried  your  image  in  my  heart,  Dolly,  every  minute, 
day  and  night,  since  the  evening  I  kissed  your  fair 
brow.  Do  you  remember  that  night,  Dolly,  just 
after  nine?  The  moon  was  half  over  that  big  black 
hill,  and  I  kissed  your  hair  as  you  stood  behind  this 
old  pomegranate  bush,  about  to  tell  you  good-bye; 
then  I  kissed  your  brow,  and  then — and  then  I  kissed 
your  lips,  your  beautiful  red  lips.  Dorothea  Anna 
bel,  Dor-o-th-ea,  my  little  Dolly!" 

"  And  I — I — I  have  kept  those  kisses,  Captain 
Temple.  I  shall  keep  them  always." 

"What?  Oh,  Dolly,  Dolly,  Dolly!  Those  were 
good-bye  kisses — not  adieu,  but  good-bye !  You  had 
told  me — the  night  before, — and  my  heart  had  cried 
aloud  to  my  brain, — you  had  told  me  that  you  loved 
another — that  Stokes  man.  But,  Dolly, — Dorothea 


390  THE    BETRAYAL 

Annabel,  my  little  Dolly, — I  just  had  to  see  you  the 
next  night ;  and  to-night — I  had  to  see  you  once  more. 
Now,  what  can  I  say — but  good-bye." 

"Why,  Captain  Temple,  I  don't  love  Mr.  Stokes; 
I  only  told  you  that  he  asked  me  to  marry  him.  Oh! 
— how  could  you — how  could  you  think  that  I  loved 
that  creature !  Oh! — how  could  you  ?  " 

"There  was  that  in  your  eyes,  in  your  voice! — I 
could  not  mistake — — " 

Why  would  he  not  speak?  Yet,  she  half-dreaded 
to  hear  him  say,  "  I  love  you,  Dolly, — will  you  be 
my  wife?"  Still,  had  she  not  heard  those  words 
every  minute  since  that  afternoon  in  May  when  she 
first  knew  that  she  loved  him,  that  she  had  always 
loved  him,  that  she  would  ever  love  him.  Oh,  but 
why  would  he  not  say  the  words? 

"  Dor-o-th-ea  An-na-bel,  the  dew's  fallin'  mighty 
heavy-like !  James  P.  says  come  in." 

Mr.  Rice  had  gone  to  bed  before  the  visitor  had 
arrived. 

At  half-past  ten  Captain  Temple  made  his  way 
toward  his  home,  leaving  Eugenie  Victoria  and  the 
domiciled  carpetbagger  "  a-settin'  "  in  the  shadow  of 
an  old  elm  and  the  "  Perfessor"  and  Phyllis  Daphne 
"  a-settin' '  in  the  garden,  a  rose  bush  between 
them. 

"  Yet,  Dorothea  Annabel,  my  pretty  little  Dolly,  I 
would  give  my  good  right  arm  to  see  lights  in  Lelia 
Braxton's  eyes  such  as  I  saw  in  your  eyes  this  night  1 
I  think  so." 


CHAPTER   NINE 

MRS.  BRAXTON  entered  the  conservatory 
from  the  dining-room. 
"  I  met  Mr.  Taliaferro  in  town." 

"  Yes,  mother  dear." 

"  He  came  down  from  Richmond  on  the  early 
train.  My,  he  did  look  so  well,  so  handsome,  so 
distinguished,  he  took  me  back  to  the  time  when 
many  young  men  in  Warrenton  were  gentlemen — 
Virginian  gentlemen !  He  asked  me  to  say  that  he 
would  call  to-night." 

"Father  will  be  glad  to  see  him,  I  am  sure;  for 
if  the  sculpture  of  the  Poe  bust  is  not  finished,  father 
will  wish  to  remind  him  again  to  keep  Mr.  Poe's 
chin  *  well  up — well  elevated,  Richard.' ' 

"  Your  father  thinks  Mr.  Taliaferro  is  a  sculptor 
of  very  great  ability,  whose  name  will  live  among 
those  of  the  great  artists  of  the  world.  His  exhibits 
in  Berlin  and  Paris  attracted  the  attention  of  many 
distinguished  European  critics.  In  a  letter  that  Mr. 
Braxton  received  only  yesterday  from  Sir  Henry 
Tweedmouth,  who  saw  the  young  Virginian  sculptor, 
Ezekiel,  in  Rome  a  few  weeks  ago,  Sir  Henry  said 
that  Ezekiel  spoke  of  Mr.  Taliaferro's  work  in  terms 
of  highest  praise." 

"  I  am  no  sculptor,  mother  dear.  But  I  think  Mr. 
Taliaferro's  pieces  are  very  beautiful.  He  showed 
me  a  photograph  of  his  Fall  of  Man.  I  had  not 
known  before  I  saw  that  beautiful  group  that  marble 
could  be  made  to  say  so  much." 


392  THE    BETRAYAL 

"  Mr.  Taliaferro  is  the  wealthiest  young  man  in 
Virginia." 

"  /  should  not  like  to  be  the  wealthiest  young  man 
in  Virginia." 

"  But  Mr.  Taliaferro  is  unable  to  use  the  principal 
of  his  great  fortune.  His  estate  is  in  England,  en 
tailed,  and  was  inherited  by  him  only  six  years  ago 
—long  after^the  war.  No  doubt  he  would  give  his 
fortune  to  the  creditors  if  he  could;  but  he  can  spend 
only  his  income,  and  he  spends  that  for  Virginia. 
You  remember  that  he  gave  five  thousand  dollars  to 
Miss  Boiling.  I  like  Richard  Taliaferro  better  than 
any  young  man  I  know." 

"  He  gives  all  his  income  to  his  country?  " 

'  Yes;  and  he  does  not  let  his  left  hand  know  what 
his  right  hand  does.  I  like  that  in  Richard  Talia 
ferro.  Some  young  men  give  their  money  to  the 
creditors,  and  we  hear  of  nothing  else  for  months — 
nothing  but  how  noble,  what  a  splendid  young  man! 
Richard  Taliaferro's  high  character,  his  delicate  sense 
of  honour,  his  manliness ! — I  like  Richard  Taliaferro. 
Indeed,  your  father  and  I  have  grown  to  love  him 
as  though  he  were  our  own  son." 

"  I  like  him,  too,  mother, — almost  as  if  he  were 
your  own  son." 

'  The  bazaar  will  be  held  Tuesday." 

'  Yes,  mother  dear." 

"  We  have  made  a  great  mistake.  Persons  of  the 
class  to  which  Mrs.  Rice,  my  former  maid,  belongs, 
should  never  have  been  permitted  to  take  charge  of 
booths,  or  to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  manage 
ment  of  the  bazaar,  for  they  certainly  will  exceed  the 
proprieties.  They  will  think  that  we  have  let  down 
the  social  bars." 


THE    BETRAYAL  393 

u  But,  .mother,  we  need  their  influence;  and  we 
should  leave  no  stone  unturned,  as  we  agreed  more 
than  two  months  ago." 

uThey  will  contribute  only  a  very  little  money, 
daughter;  and  we  will  pay  dearly  for  those  few  dol 
lars.  We  should  leave  no  stone  unturned,  as  we  have 
said;  but  I  fear  that  the  Rices  and  their  friends  will 
prove  millstones  around  our  social  necks.  The  social 
advances  of  our  inferiors  must  be  checked  as  soon  as 
they  are  made,  for  the  yeomanry  and  the  peasantry 
must  be  forced  to  keep  their  proper  places.  I  hope 
that  you  will  be  very  careful." 

"Marse  Taliaferro!" 

"  I  will  tell  him  that  you  are  in  the  conservatory, 
and  then  I  will  go  to  your  father,  who  is  waiting  for 
me  in  the  library." 

"Father  is  in  the  library,  Mr.  Taliaferro;  shall  I 
call  him?" 

"  I  have  seen  your  father,  Miss  Braxton;  and  now 
I  have  come  to  see  you — with  his  permission  I  have 
come — I  have  come  to  ask  you  to  be  my  wife." 

"  I— I— I_oh— I " 

They  stood  beside  a  young  crape-myrtle,  the 
flowers  of  which  hung  in  clusters  above  their 
heads. 

"  I  love  you,  Miss  Braxton.  I  loved  you  the  time 
that  I  first  saw  you — the  day  that  you  called  with 
your  father  at  my  studio.  I  have  loved  you  ever 
since — with  a  growing  love — until  now — now  I  have 
not  words  with  which  to  say,  I  love  you." 

"Oh,  please,  please,  please! — don't — please!" 

'  You  and  your  father  called  at  my  studio  in  the 
morning — that  night  your  face  in  profile — a  small 
intaglio  of  purest  marble,  but  white  and  cold — was 


394  THE    BETRAYAL 

in  my  hand — finished.  Never  before  had  I  sculp 
tured  such  a  face.  I  once  chiselled  the  head  of  Ga 
briel, — part  angel,  part  woman,  part  man, — but  your 
face — the  marble  was  not  you.  From  then  until  now 
I  have  tried  to  put  your  face  into  marble,  but  I  can 
not " 

"Oh,  please,  please,  please!" 

He  knelt  on  one  knee;  he  took  her  hand,  and  be 
fore  she  could  withdraw  it — gently  withdraw  it — he 
had  kissed  it  reverently — the  kiss  of  love  in  the 
higher  expression  of  passion. 

"  For  a  long  time  I  have  tried  to  tell  you  of  my 
love.  But  I  could  not,  for  love  stood  abashed  before 
you — love,  the  God  that  is  in  man,  the  part  of  Him 
that  is  a  part  of  us — that  love  could  not  speak,  that 
love  could  find  no  expression;  I  could  not  tell  you 
that  I  loved  you — and  now  I  can  not  tell  you  how 
much  I  love  you.  I  love  you.  I ' 

"Please;  please — I  don't — I — I — I  do  not  love 
you;  I  love — I  love  John  Harrison." 

"Forgive  me;  I  did  not  know — I  could  not  see 
beyond  my  own  love — I  could  not  feel  beyond  my 
love  for  you !  John  Harrison — he  is  a  man.  I  shall 
congratulate  him — in  time;  some  day.  Forgive 
me?" 

"I  shall  not  marry  Mr.  Harrison;  but — but — oh, 
Mr.  Taliaferro,  I  am  so  sorry,  so  sorry !  " 

"Why,  Miss  Braxton;  I  too  am  a  man — a  bit  dis 
turbed  now,  but  a  man.  Please  do  not  grieve  on  my 
account.  .  .  .  Now  I  shall  withdraw,  for  I  am  sure 
that  you  wish  to  be  alone." 

"  Oh,  my  love,  my  love,  my  love !  " 

But  John  Harrison  did  not  hear  that  cry  of  love. 


THE     BETRAYAL  395 

"Why,  daughter;  you  still  here  among  your 
flowers?" 

"  Father,  Mr.  Taliaferro  has  just  asked  me  to  be 
his  wife.  I  said  no.  I  shall  never  marry,  father." 

11  Never,  my  daughter, — until  you  marry  the  man 
that  you  love." 

He  kissed  her  tenderly.  Does  a  man  know  any 
woman  as  he  knows  his  daughter?  Does  a  woman 
love  any  man  as  she  loves  her  father?  Those  were 
the  questions  that  Judge  Braxton  asked  himself  as 
he  went  toward  his  room.  And  do  the  elements 
of  love  differ  essentially? 

"  Still,  Mr.  Braxton,  I  am  unable  to  see  how  Lelia 
could  have  chosen  John  Harrison  instead  of  Richard 
Taliaferro.  A  woman's  fancy — good  night,  Mr. 
Braxton." 

•  •  •  •  • 

"  I's  quality,  I  is,  an'  I's  mixed  wid  white  quality 
all  mah  life.  An'  I  jes'  tells  you,  nigger,  I's  gwine 
stay  quality,  an'  I's  gwine  'port  mahse'f  'fo'  quality 
lek  er  quality  cullud  pusson.  I  ain'  gwine  no  bazaar, 
'ceptin'  peek  in  de  window." 

"  Melindy,  you  ain'  fitten  fo'  elevation,  you  ain'. 
Critters  lek  you  obscures  de  race,  an'  er  gemman  as 
is  beard  de  heat  an'  de  burden  ob  civilisin',  outen 
de  sun,  a-wukin'  an'  a-wukin'  till  he  done  tan  his 
skin,  am  more  fitten  fo'  de  subsequences  an'  de  pre 
dicaments  ob  humans  den  de  pussons  as  sets  in  de 
shade  an'  keeps  dyah  faces  pale.  I's  er  s'ciety  man 
now,  I  is,  an'  er  extinguished  statement,  er-gwine 
er-legislatin',  an'  er-makin'  de  laws  regulationin'  dem 
white-face  loafers;  an'  I's  axin'  you  ter  git  outen  de 
kitchen,  den  tek  yo'  place  'long  'side  yo'  extinguish- 


396  THE    BETRAYAL 

ment  man,  'stead  ob  stewin'  ober  dem  pots  an'  pans, 
er-keepin'  yo'  face  black.  You  come  'long  wid  me, 
Melindy,  an'  tek  yo'  place  in  s'ciety  'long  wid  Hon'- 
ble  Legislatin'  Doctah  ob  de  Laws  Shadrak  Meshuk 
Bednigger  Berkeley,  Hon'ble  Congressman  Cap'n 
Temple,  Hon'ble  Senator  Mistah  Rice  an'  Missus 
Rice,  ter  say  nuttin'  ob  dar  lubly  gals.  An'  don'  you 
hev  nuttin'  ter  do  wid  dem  po'-white  Stovers  an' 
sech ;  but  kep  yo'  head  flung  high,  Melindy,  so's  ter 
step  'long  'side  yo'  extinguishment  man.  In  dese 
days  er  pusson  done  tell  er  pusson  by  de  company 
dey  migrates  wid." 

"  What's  gwine  come  yo'  flock,  Shad,  now  you's 
done  quit  preachin'  an'  gon'  er-statementin'  ?  " 

"  Damn  de  flock,  Melindy;  dey's  er  onery  lot,  an' 
ain'  fitten  ter  'sociate  wid  statements.  I  ain'  sot  no 
sto'  by  'ligion  nohow,  I  ain'.  Dem  lazy  niggers  ain' 
got  no  money;  so  how's  er  preacher  gwine  git  what 
dey  ain't  got?  I's  gwine  turn  'em  loose  soon  as  I's 
'lected." 

"  I's  done  kep'  mah  eye  on  you,  I  has.  You's  ben 
er-swearin'  an'  er-swearin'  an'  er-cussin'  an'  er-drinkin' 
an'  er-loafin'  an'  er-stealin'  sence  you  run  yo'se'f, 
Shad,  lek  you  done  run  crazy.  Am  you  fell  from 
grace,  Shad?" 

"  Melindy,  when  I  wus  er  preacher  I  ack  lek  er 
preacher;  while  I's  er-runnin'  I  ack  lek  er  runner; 
when  I  gits  er  law'er  I's  gwine  ack  lek  er  law'er. 
I's  er  statement,  I  is,  an'  I  acks  lek  er  statement.  I 
don'  swear  an'  cuss  an'  lie  an'  drink  an'  loaf  an' 
steal  no  more'n  no  udder  law'er  an'  statement." 

"Wa-al,  Mistah  Berkeley-- 

"  Doctah  Berkeley;  say  de  highest  soundin'  ob 
scure  handle,  Missus  Berkeley.  I " 


THE    BETRAYAL  397 

"You  done  say  as  how  you  done  quit  preacher." 

"  Melindy,  you's  hard  ter  instruction.  I  ain'  no 
doctah  ob  preachin'  no  mo' — I's  er  doctah  ob  lawinV 

"  Wa-al,  Doctah  Berkeley,  I  might's  well  git  on 
my  bonnet  an'  best  dress  an'  shawl  same  as  de  udder 
cullud  ladies  ob  quality.  I  'spec's  you's  right,  cayse 
Mistah  Temple  he  done  say  as  how  ebbybody  used  ter 
be  black,  an'  as  how  white  folks  come  by  dyah  faces 
cayse  dey  loafs  in  de  shade.  I  allus  wanted  be  lek 
white  folks  anyways,  an'  yist'day  black  Rose — Miss 
Johnsin',  I  means — comes  'roun',  an'  say,  says  she, 
as  how  er  liT  box  ob  sab  as  comes  one  dollar  tek 
de  kinks  right  outen  de  hyar  de  fust  time,  an'  grows 
more'n  er  foot  ob  hyar  de  nex'  time.  De  nex'  time, 
when  de  sab's  gone,  dat  stuff  done  mek  de  hyar 
straight  an'  three  foot  long  an'  er-growin'.  I  done 
put  it  on  one  time,  an'  Rose — Miss  Johnsin' — done 
got  mah  dollar.  She  done  say  as  how  she's  comin' 
back  agin  an'  sell  me  a  liT  box  ob  sab  fer  two-dollar- 
ten-cent  as  turns  er  black  face  lighter  an'  lighter  till 
it  gits  er  fash'nable  tan.  An'  she  say  as  how  she's 
got  anudder  box  as  comes  five-dollar-fifteen-cent  as 
meks  er  brunette  outen  er  choc'lat'." 

"Here's  de  money,  Melindy;  I  wants  some  ob  dat 
sab." 

Dr.  Berkeley  and  Mrs.  Berkeley  began  to  dress 
for  the  bazaar. 

"  Gladys "' 

"Miss  Lancaster,  Gary,  if  you  please." 
"  Gladys,  I  have  come  to  ask  you  to  take  a  walk 
with  me." 
"Now?" 
"Yes." 


398  THE    BETRAYAL 

"Why,  Gary! — not  a  walk;  you  mean  a  buggy 
ride.  In  these  days  and  times  the  Virginian  takes 
his  gyurl  out  for  a  buggy  drive  Sunday  afternoons 
when  he  wants  to  propose  to  her,  and  pops  the  ques 
tion  when  they  get  about  twelve  miles  from  home.  I 
just  know  you're  going  to  propose  to  me  again,  be 
cause  you  always  do  when  we're  alone;  and  besides, 
it's  Sunday  afternoon;  and  besides,  you  look  like 
you're  going  to  propose.  Now  if  I  were  going  to 
propose  I  wouldn't  look  so  solemn.  Seems  to  me  it 
would  be  a  lot  of  fun.  But  if  you  must  do  it  again, 
get  a  buggy,  I  say.  Besides  it's  only  six  o'clock; 
the  sun's  hot,  and  I  don't  want  to  burn  my  face  just 
before  the  bazaar.  No,  sir;  you  get  a  buggy." 

"Is  nothing  sacred,  Gladys?" 

"Oh,  yes,  Gary;  my  photograph's  sacred — you 
said  so  last  night." 

"I  have  no  buggy;  nor  does  a  Virginian  gentle 
man  ask  a  girl  to  marry  him  while  driving  along  a 
public  highway.  A  Virginian  gentleman  is  still  a 
Virginian  gentleman,  and  he  asks  a  girl  to  be  his 
wife  while  she  is  under  the  protection  of  her  father's 
roof." 

"  All  right,  Gary,  I  will  go  with  you,  because  you 
won't  be  able  to  propose  to  me,  for  I  won't  be  under 
the  protection  of  popper's  roof,  and  lovers'  lane's  a 
public  highway.  Come  along." 

"We  have  walked  more  than  two  miles,  Gladys; 
so  let  us  sit  on  that  old  log  over  there,  under  that 
great  oak." 

"  No,  Gary;  the  sun  is  about  to  set,  and  it  wouldn't 
be  proper  for  me  to  leave  the  public  highway  with 
you." 


THE    BETRAYAL  399 

"Come!" 

She  went. 

"  Gladys,  you  must  tell  me  now, — I  shall  not  let 
you  play  with  me  any  longer, — you  must  tell  me  now; 
will  you  be  my  wife?" 

"  You  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  yourself,  Gary;  you, 
a  Virginian  gentleman !  I'm  not  under  the  protection 
of  popper's  roof,  and  I'm  very  near  the  public  high 
way.  Besides,  you  ought  to  be  thinking  about  the 
election." 

"  Gladys,  I  shall  give  you  just  three  minutes  in 
which  to  decide." 

Mr.  Dabney  rose  and  took  out  his  watch.  Miss 
Lancaster  rose,  stood  facing  him,  her  back  against 
the  great  oak,  her  face  now  averted,  now  lifted  to 
ward  his  own.  She  wrote  on  the  ground  with  her 
parasol  the  initial  letters  G.  L.  D.,  then  the  initials 
G.  L.,  and  then  she  followed  those  letters  by  the 
initials,  one  after  another,  of  a  dozen  possible  hus 
bands.  Next  she  thought  aloud. 

"  Besides,  I'm  not  ready  to  answer  Dabney — un 
less  I  say  no,  and  I'm  not  quite  ready  to  say  no. 
There's  Lord  Bowlegged  Thing-um-a-jig.  My  sis 
ter  says  I  can  have  him  for  the  asking,  if  I'll  go  to 
visit  her  in  London  next  season." 

"One  minute." 

'Oh,  but  you  are  cruel!  I  didn't  believe  you 
could  be  so  cruel!  The  idea!  .  .  .  Then  I'm  sure 
Lelia  has  just  flung  away  Dick  Ta.liaferro.  She 
looks  like  she's  just  kicked  him,  and  so  does  he.  I 
wrote  to  him  this  morning,  asking  him  to  call  to  see 
me,  and  I'm  sure  he'll  call  before  half-past  eight  this 
evening.  .  .  .  Then,  Lelia  will  never  marry  John 
Harrison.  Either  Dabney  or  Harrison  will  be  gov- 


400  THE    BETRAYAL 

ernor;  and  if  Harrison's  elected  Dabney  won't  have 
a  cent  to  marry  on.  .  .  .  Besides " 

'  Two  minutes." 

"  Oh,  oh  !  How  can  you  be  so  mean !  You  don't 
love  me — or  you  wouldn't  treat  me  so!  Oh,  ohl 
...  I  can  make  a  much  better  match.  There's  a 
young  fellow  that  my  married  sister  in  New  York 
has  picked  out — the  one  whose  father  made  millions 
out  of  hides;  and  popper  says  he  made  such  good 
bargains  for  his  other  daughters — four  of  'em — that 
with  all  their  rich  high-flying  friends  I  oughter  do 
better  than  any  of  'em.  He  says  I'm  good  for  ten 
millions  at  the  least,  and  hopes  that  I'll  remember 
him  when  I  get  it.  L 'amour  compte  pour  beaucoup, 
ma'is  Vargent  compte  pour  da  vantage — think  of 
Gladys  spoutin'  French  just  to  herself.  .  .  .  Be 
sides, — what  time  is  it,  Gary?" 

"Two  minutes  and  a  half." 

"  Dabney's  too  honest  to  be  rich,  anyhow.  He 
would  make  me  work,  I  guess,  and  then  give  all  my 
wages  and  all  he'd  make  to  the  creditors — the 
damned  old  creditors.  Oh,  oh,  but  you  are  cruel !  " 

»  Three  m " 

"  Oh,  you  dear  old  bear !  I  love  you,  love  you, 
love  you ! " 

Gentle  reader,  we  will  let  down  the  curtain,  and 
we  ask  that  for  a  few  minutes  you  leave  the  ardent 
lovers  to  their  feast  of  love. 

'"  Why,  Gary,  I  never  loved  any  man  9cept  you.  I 
have  loved  you  always — since  the  time  I  met  you  at 
the  Morven  ball,  'bout  three  or  four  months  ago. 
Surely,  Gary,  you  didn't  take  a  young  girl's  bash- 
fulness  seriously?  Why,  you  poor  boy!  I  just  loved 


THE    BETRAYAL  401 

you  so  much  I  had  to  pretend  I  didn't  love  you  at 
all.  I'd  marry  you  if  I  had  to  work  to  support  you 
keeping  bo'din'-house — I  am  marrying  you  when  I 
might  marry  millions.  Don't  mind  a  young  girl's 
banter,  Gary  dear.  You  know  more  about  politics 
than  you  do  about  girls.  I'm  glad  you  do." 

"  Gladys,  dearest,  I  love  you.  I  have  always 
known  that  beneath  your  mirth  there  was  a  heart — 
a  great  heart,  a  great  noble  heart,  the  heart  of  a 
noble  woman.  I  knew  that  you  loved  me,  Gladys; 
I  have  always  known  that.  There  never  has  been 
a  girl  so  beautiful,  so  good — so — so — so  everything 
—as  you." 

•  •  •  •  • 

Mr.  Andy  Stover,  doorkeeper,  was  on  duty  the 
night  of  the  last  Tuesday  of  August,  when  the  peo 
ple  of  Fauquier,  peasant,  yeoman,  and  gentleman, 
entered  and  left  the  court-house,  where  the  bazaar 
was  held,  as  they  had  done  throughout  the  day.  Mr. 
Stover  was  sober,  thanks  to  Mrs.  Stover,  who  had 
not  permitted  him  to  leave  his  post,  except  in  her 
company,  for  a  single  minute.  Mrs.  Stover  had  so 
cial  aspirations,  which  she  did  not  propose  to'  let  her 
husband  place  in  jeopardy. 

While  Mr.  Stover  listened  to  the  town  clock  as  it 
struck  the  hour  of  eight,  his  sense  of  social  impor 
tance  at  war  with  his  sense  of  thirst,  suddenly  his 
eyes  bulged  and  his  heart  ceased  to  beat.  Then  the 
blood  rushed  to  his  head,  and  he  clenched  his  power 
ful  hands  until  they  became  the  smith's  mighty  fists, 
for  the  former  reverend  doctor  of  laws  and  his  good 
wife,  arm  in  arm,  were  walking  leisurely  toward  the 
court-house.  The  dusky  lady,  tall,  dignified,  majes 
tic,  her  distinguished  "statement's"  worthy  consort, 


402  THE     BETRAYAL 

smiled  as  she  bowed,  now  to  the  right  and  no~w  to 
the  left,  to  the  people — the  coloured  people,  the 
"  statement's  "  own  people,  whose  voice  would  soon 
be  heard — the  people  that  for  centuries  had  gathered 
about  the  fete  buildings  of  their  masters.  The  doc 
tor  wore  a  silk  hat  of  ancient  lineage. 

"Andy,  how  is  you,  mah  good  man,  an' 
how's " 

The  good  doctor  suddenly  was  separated  from  his 
lady.  She  tottered,  indeed,  then  fell  upon  her  knees, 
so  abruptly  was  her  hand  withdrawn  from  the 
"  statement's "  arm.  The  form  of  the  mighty 
smith  towered  above  her. 

"  Lawdy,  Mistah  Stover,  suh!  Lawdy!  Lawdy! 
I  ain'  gwine  do  so  no  mo' !  Lawdy,  Mistah  Stover, 
suh!  Oh,  Lawdy!" 

"Git  home,  Melindy,  git  home;  I  'lowed  you 
knowed  yo'  place.  Git  out  de  way — an'  let  me  git 
on  to  that  black  no-'count,  lazy,  good-for-nothin'  man 
o'  yourn." 

Whereupon  the  doctor  of  laws  picked  himself  up 
from  the  ground,  where  he  lay  a  few  paces  away; 
and  for  several  minutes  thereafter  the  music  of  his 
footfalls  was  a  symphony  in  the  ears  of  the  worthy 
blacksmith. 

Mrs.  Berkeley  went  home. 

The  old  court-house,  decorated  for  the  bazaar  with 
the  colours  of  Virginia,  was  crowded  at  nine  o'clock, 
the  night  of  the  festival.  Miss  Braxton  had  deco 
rated  her  booth  with  goldenrod;  Miss  Dabney's  stall 
was  a  bower  of  oak  branches,  the  leaves  of  which, 
all  shades  of  green  and  brown,  hung  from  the  boughs 
stiffly,  as  if  the  branches  had  been  cut  by  some  awk- 


THE    BETRAYAL  403 

ward  arm — sturdy,  but  awkward.  Miss  Lancaster 
had  selected  fruit  with  which  to  decorate  her 
booth. 

Everywhere  was  colour — and  everywhere  was 
gloom — gloom  blended  with  gaiety.  Was  Virginia 
to  live?  Was  Virginia  to  die?  None  could  say. 
In  that  old  court-house  were  those  who  would  go 
with  Virginia  into  her  grave — and  in  that  old  court 
house  were  those  who  would  go  to  Virginia's  wake; 
there  were  those  who  would  eat  and  drink  and  make 
merry  over  her  dead  self.  Everywhere  was  sadness 
— everywhere  was  gaiety. 

The  Readjuster  spent  dimes  at  the  booth  where 
the  Debtpayer  spent  dollars.  The  peasant  expected 
to  purchase  gentility.  The  aristocrat  hoped  against 
hope  to  save  the  honour  of  his  country. 

A  group  of  gentlemen,  now  grave,  now  gay,  were 
discussing  the  animated  scenes  about  them. 

"  Sirs,  behold  Virginia  !  "  Colonel  Daingerfield  ex 
claimed.  "  See,  Judge,  your  beautiful  daughter,  her 
eyes  sparkling  like  the  stars  of  heaven,  her  young 
face  shaming  the  beauty  of  the  moss  rose,  as  she  looks 
out  upon  us  through  a  frame  of  goldenrod;  Dabney, 
behold  the  queen  of  your  home,  now  amid  the  beau 
ties  of  the  wilderness;  Lancaster,  your  daughter  is — 
er — er — more  beautiful  than  the  fruits  of  the  earth 
that  surround  her;  and  over  there  are  the  five  lovely 
daughters  of  our  late  friend  Clarke,  who  went  down 
so  bravely  at  Seven  Pines;  and  yonder — yonder  be 
hold  the  manly  beauty  of  dead  Beverley's  nine 
young  sons ;  and  yonder — 

"  Colonel,  I  wonder  why  those  five  Clarke  girls 
hang  together  like  a  spray  of  flowers?  and  I  wonder 
why  those  Beverley  boys  are  a  cluster  of  grapes?" 


404  THE    BETRAYAL 

"Lancaster,  your  comments  are  usually  in  the  best 
of  taste." 

"  Well,  I  wish  five  of  those  Beverley  boys  would 
marry  the  five  Clarke  girls,  and — I  shall  have  to  ask 
Gladys  what  to  do  with  the  other  Beverleys." 

"Cease  wrangling,  my  children;  cease!  Hold! — 
can  that  be  Dr.  Smythe — Dr.  Smythe  in  this  assem 
blage?" 

"Sir,"  said  the  colonel,  "the  herculean  efforts  of 
the  ladies  to  save  the  honour  of  Virginia  have  forced 
Dr.  Smythe  into  this  building.  He  has  bought  arti 
cles  at  various  stalls  that  have  cost  him  the  great 
sum  of  ten  cents  each.  Mr.  Carter,  sir,  have  you 
done  so  much?  " 

"  Francis,  you  forget  the  dignity  of  my  years." 

"  Who  is  that  young  man  advancing  toward  us,  his 
hat  still  on  his  head?"  asked  Judge  Braxton. 

"That,"  Colonel  Daingerfield  replied,  "is  Mr. 
Roger  Williams  Stokes,  the  domiciled  carpetbag- 
ger." 

"  Fine  night,  gents;  an'  I  kin  tell  you  I'm  mighty 
glad  ther-r-re's  suppen  fine  'round  her-r-re.  We  uns 
up  ter  hum  allers  like  to  mix  up  a  little  business 
'long  side  o'  pleasure.  That's  how  comes  it  we  east 
ern  gents  gits  on  better'n  you  folks.  I  'lowed  as  I'd 
come  over-r-r  her-r-re  an'  ax  your-r-r  influence 
towards  my  'p'intment." 

"Sir!  why,  sir!  how  dare " 

"Hold,  Francis! — hear  this  gentleman  to  the  end. 
Sir,  to  what  appointment  do  you  refer?" 

"  Wa-al,  I  'lowed  as  how  I'd  bring  Debtpayers 
an'  Readjusters  together  fer  once,  'lowin'  as  how  I'd 
git  'em  tergether  on  me  fer  sup'intendent  o'  free 
schools  of  this  her-r-re  county." 


THE    BETRAYAL  405 

'"  Judge  Braxton,  please  examine  Mr.  Stokes," 
Mr.  Carter  suggested.  "  You  may  find  that  he  is 
properly  equipped  to  direct  the  affairs  of  the  public 
schools  of  this  county.  Mr.  Payne  is  superintendent 
now;  but  Mr.  Stokes  may  be  more  competent  than 
Mr.  Payne.  If  so,  Mr.  Stokes  should  be  the  super 
intendent" 

"  Ther-r-re  ain't  no  place  as  I  ain't  fitten  ter  fill. 
Them  Readjusters  has  up  an'  promised  the  mathe 
matical  cheer  in  the  University  to  Perfessor  Simp 
son,  an'  I  'lows  as  this  her-r-re  job  oughter-r-r  come 
ter  me — a  Daown-East  man  as  is  up  in  the  educa 
tional  line." 

"  Mr.  Stokes,  please  conjugate  the  verb  to  be." 

"  Wa-al,  Judge,  I  didn't  'low  as  there'd  be  no  par 
ticular  questionin' — leastways,  not  now." 

"  At  least,  Mr.  Stokes,  out  of  the  fullness  of 
your  knowledge,  you  will  tell  Judge  Braxton  how 
many  verbs  there  are  in  the  English  language,"  said 
Mr.  Carter. 

"I  thank  you,  sir;  no  doubt  Mr.  Stokes  will  an 
swer  your  question." 

"  Two — verps  an'  adverps.  I  mostly  believes  in 
adverps;  but  sometimes  I  do  use  them  verps." 

"  Mr.  Stokes,  we  shall  consider  your  application," 
Judge  Braxton  said. 

"Much  obleeged,  gents;  now  I  can  git  on  to  Par 
son  Jones." 

"  One  of  Tim  Murphy's  plain  people." 

"Yes,  General  Dabney;  one  of  Murphy's  plain 
people,"  replied  Judge  Braxton. 

"  In  Mr.  Stokes  and  his  kind  virtue  doth  reside," 
said  the  colonel.  '  7'here  virtue  is  domiciled.  In 
the  palace  is  wickedness;  in  the  hovel  is  goodness. 


THE    BETRAYAL 

Did  you  hear  that  voice?  That  was  the  voice  of 
the  people — that  was  the  voice  of  Almighty  God. 
That  man,  Lancaster,  is  your  equal.  So  said  Jeffer 
son  ;  so  says  Murphy.  Mr.  Payne  must  give  place 
to  Mr.  Stokes.  Virtue " 

"  Colonel,  sir,  Mr.  Beecher  once  wanted  to  know 
how  a  Virginny  gentleman  could  boast  of  his  virtue 
while  his  slaves  were  about  him." 

"  Lancaster, — sirs — gentlemen — pardon  my  agita 
tion;  but  when  that  infamous  charge,  brought  by  the 
enemies  of  our  country  against  the  gentlemen  of  Vir 
ginia,  is  repeated  in  my  hearing,  I  lose  my  self- 
control — almost.  Sirs,  you  know — all  Virginia 
knows :  The  mulatto  in  Virginia  before  the  war  be 
tween  the  states  was  the  progeny  of  northern  and 
eastern  commercial  travellers.  Now  and  then  a  few 
of  the  outcasts  of  our  people — but  there  are  depraved 
persons  among  all  peoples,  and  very  few  there  were 
in  Virginia  until  these  evil  days  befell  us.  Sirs,  this 
we  all  know :  The  mulatto  in  Virginia  was  almost 
unknown  before  Reconstruction." 

"  My  children,  Francis  speaketh  truth." 

"And,  Mr.  Carter,  I  am  unable  to  see  how  our 
enemies  could  have  believed  in  the  truth  of  their 
infamous  accusations,"  said  the  judge.  "  For  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  the  Virginian  gentleman, 
married  by  the  time  that  he  reached  manhood,  has 
lived  quietly  within  his  home,  his  wife  and  children 
about  him;  a  man  of  culture,  representing  the  highest 
civilisation  the  world  has  known.  How  could  that 
man  have  been  unfaithful  to  all  that  he  held  sacred? 
Besides,  the  paternity  of  a  child  being  always  known, 
the  white  parent  of  the  illegitimate  child  in  Virginia 
has  always  been  ostracised  by  society  and  by  every 


THE    BETRAYAL  407 

person  of  good  standing  in  his  community.  Before 
the  war  there  were  few  illegitimate  children  in  Vir 
ginia  whose  parents,  either  of  them,  were  white;  and 
neither  before  nor  after  their  unlawful  parenthood 
were  those  persons  held  in  high  esteem  by  Virgin 
ians — gentlemen,  yeomen,  or  peasants,  or  even  by 
negroes." 

"  Now,  sirs,"  the  colonel  said,  "  the  fathers  of 
more  than  half  the  negro  children  are  white  men — 
carpetbaggers  and  the  misguided  people  of  Virginia, 
peasant  and  yeoman,  corrupted  and  taught  lust  and 
all  forms  of  violence  and  intemperance  by  the 
scavengers  of  Reconstruction,  the  outcasts  of  society 
to  the  north  and  east  of  us.  Sirs,  the  fair  name  of 
Virginia  has  been  defamed,  and  Virginia's  ravishers, 
Tarquin-like,  would  heap  their  crimes  upon  the  vir 
gin  that  they  have  defiled.  Sirs,  with  the  utmost 
difficulty  I  restrain  my  anger." 

Ah,  gentlemen,  had  you  lived  in  this  year  of  grace 
1910,  when  the  negro  population  of  New  York  city 
exceeds  sixty  thousand,  and  the  negro  population  of 
Philadelphia  exceeds  sixty-two  thousand,  and  the 
negro  population  of  Boston  exceeds  eleven  thousand, 
and  not  a  child  among  all  those  negroes  of  ten  years 
of  age  and  less  that  is  not  a  mulatto — ah,  gentle 
men,  had  you  lived  in  this  year  of  grace  and  known 
these  awful  facts,  would  you  have  held  northern  and 
eastern  gentlemen  to  be  the  fathers  of  those  chil 
dren?  We  trow  not. 

Mrs.  Rice  had  written  to  Miss  Amanda  Burgess, 
her  sixth  cousin,  urging  her  to  attend  the  bazaar,  and 
inviting  her  to  bring  her  two  friends,  Miss  Mai- 
abelle  Berry  and  Miss  La  Salle  Saunders,  with  her. 


408  THE    BETRAYAL 

WARRENTON — VIRGINNY — 
deaR  mandy — 

now  du  cum  mandy  you  and  th  gyuRLS  feR  they  aint 
ben  no  Sich  hapninS  neveR — eugenic  victoRia  an'  phylliS 
daphne  is  alReady  got  theiR  mans — an  doRothea  annabel 
She  haS  herR  hopeS — but  i  aint  Sayin  nuttin  bout  doRo- 
thea  annabel  yit — sciety  in  waRRenton  iS  juSt  awhiRlin 
• — an  theReS  all  soRts  o  sciety  men  bout  whilSt  theRe 
aint  nothin  but  ShopkeepeRS  an  poo  whiteS  feR  them 
guyRlS  terR  Sociate  with  Round  peteRSbuRg — caySe 
they  thinkS  themSelveS  mighty  high  Round  peteRSbuRg 
— them  as  aint  too  low  too  be  fitten  too  kep  company  with 
Sech  fin  guyRIS  aS  maiabelly  and  la  Sally — i  dont  See  why 
theiR  mawS  didnt  put  middle  woRdS  intoo  them  guyRIS 
names — poetic  nameS  iS  mighty  tRactive  too  men  theSe 
days — now  you  jeST  fetch  em  along  mandy — and  all  off 
you  Stay  with  jameS  p  and  me  and  the  guyRIS — i  am 
lookin  mighty  high  feR  Regnald  lancelot — theRe  aint  no 
guyRl  too  good  feR  him — he  ceRtinly  iS  a  fine  young 
man — he  dont  Seem  to  be  Settin  up  with  no  guyRl  not 
woRth  mentionin — ill  take  the  guyRIS  too  the  patRiotic 
sciety  meetin  thuRSday  night  ef  you  gits  em  heRe  in  th 
moRnin — now  du  com — 

mRSF  SentoR  Rice  aS  IS  goin  ter  bee 

They  did  "  git  to  go." 

"James  P.!  James  P.!  Oh,  James  P.!  You 
come  over  here  to  our  stand;  me  an'  Mandy  an'  her 
gyurls  an'  Dorothea  Annabel  wants  you  to  help  us 
wrap  up  some  of  these  here  things  we're  a-sellin'." 

"Yes,  Mr.  Rice,  do;  because  you  is  so  used  to 
wrappin'  up  bundles,  you  knows,  an'  because  you  can 
show  us  how  to  sell  things.  Now  you  just  look  at 
our  sto',  Mr.  Rice;  ain't  it  just  too  pretty  for  any 
thing — a  heap  sight  better'n  your  shop  used  to  be 


THE    BETRAYAL  409 

just  after  you  quit  clarkin'  an'  got  to  runnin'  a  sto' 
for  yourself." 

Mrs.  Rice  drew  Miss  Burgess  aside. 

"  Mandy,  Mandy,  for  the  land's  sakes!  That  ain't 
no  way  to  act  in  s'ciety.  Jest  s'pose  them  patriotic 
ladies  as  we  met  last  night  was  to  hear  you,  them 
gyurls  of  yourn  wouldn't  have  no  bit  of  chance  in 
Warrenton  no  mo'." 

"  Now,  I  ain't  goin'  to  set  myself  up  to  be  no 
better'n  I  was  born.  I'm  as  good  as  anybody.  We're 
all  of  us  dirt,  an'  that's  shore.  I'm  quality,  good, 
honest,  plain  women-folks  quality.  You's  so  foolish, 
just  because  your  man's  runnin'  for  office,  to  set 
yourself  up  to  be  too  good  to  work.  I  didn't  know 
you  was  so  foolish.  Now  you  just  get  on  your 
apron  an'  act  natural-like,  an'  these  things  here'll 
just  sell  like  hot  cakes." 

"Well!   I  do  declare!" 

The  young  ladies  busied  themselves  over  their 
fancy  articles.  Mrs.  Braxton  had  suggested  that  they 
should  sell  preserves  and  pickles,  but  they  refused, 
and  Mrs.  Rice  had  intimated  in  a  way  that  could 
not  to  be  mistaken  that  she  "  was  too  good  to  be 
selling  sech  things."  Therefore  one  of  the  Clarke 
girls  took  preserves  and  another  took  pickles,  and 
very  popular  booths  did  they  conduct. 

"  I  ain't  come  to  this  here  fair  to  wrap  up  no 
bundles." 

"If  you  didn't  come  to  help,  what  did  you  come 
for,  James  P.?" 

"  I  come  to  make  myself  seen  an'  felt,  socially  an' 
politically,  like  a  man  a-runnin'  oughter." 

Whereupon  Mr.  Rice,  smiling  blandly  as  becometh 
a  "  runner,"  moved  among  the  people,  frequently 


4io  THE    BETRAYAL 

pausing  to  shake  hands  with  a  voice,  and  now  and 
then  stooping  to  kiss  some  urchin  with  a  clean  face 
(clean  for  once)  after  the  fashion  of  the  Honourable 
James  Barbour,  whose  political  manners  he  greatly 
admired. 

Drunk,  for  always  Dr.  Reginald  Launcelot  was 
drunk,  but  as  yet  not  very  drunk;  carrying  a  club 
of  ebony,  the  head  of  which  was  a  golden  young 
lady,  simply  attired  in  her  own  loveliness;  dressed 
in  the  height  of  Princeton  fashion,  in  which  there 
were  only  a  few  traces  of  the  influence  of  William 
and  Mary  and  the  University  of  Virginia  that  usually 
were  more  largely  discernible  in  his — er — er — cos 
tume,  and  leering  his  most  attractive  leer,  Dr.  Regi 
nald  Launcelot  advanced  upon  the  Rice-Burgess- 
Berry-Saunders  booth,  in  one  corner  of  which  was 
seated  the  fair  Mistress  La  Salle,  bewitching  as  ever, 
the  point  of  a  little  red  arrow  quivering  in  her  Cupid's 
bow,  about  to  fly  in  Dr.  Reginald  Launcelot's  di 
rection. 

The  heir  to  a  mighty  fine  house  on  some  very 
broad  acres  had  not  intended  to  go  near  his  house 
hold  booth;  but  just  before  the  social  fray  Mrs. 
Rice,  after  the  manner  of  a  true  "s'ciety"  mother, 
drew  him  aside. 

"  I  never  seen  a  purttier  gyurl  than  La  Salle,  an' 
there  ain't  no  better  nowhere." 

"  I  looks  higher." 

"Well,  son,  you'll  have  to  be  a-lookin'  mighty 
high-like  when  you  looks  over  La  Salle's  purtty  head. 
But  whilst  you're  a-lookin'  high-like,  don't  forget  to 
look  deep,  an'  if  you'll  look  deep  down-like  into 
La.  Salle's  pocket,  you'll  find  forty  thousand  dollar 


THE    BETRAYAL  411 

cash,  same  as  her  maw  left  her.  Allers  look  deep 
as  well  as  high,  son." 

Having  inherited  the  Rice  commercial  instinct,  the 
young  savant  determined  to  take  his  mother's  advice : 
he  would  look  deep  into  Miss  La  Salle's  pocket,  thus 
using  his  degree  of  doctor  of  philosophy  in  true 
Princeton  manner. 

The  vulture  hovered  over  his  prey. 

"  I  never  seen  a  more  kissable  mouth." 

The  arrow  darted  swiftly  from  the  Cupid  bow. 

"  I'm  not  that  kind  of  young  lady." 

"Then  you  think  as  how  it  ain't  a  kissable 
mouth?" 

The  archer  coyly  drew  her  bow,  the  little  red 
arrow  quivering  the  while. 

"  I  don't  think  of  such  things." 

"  I'm  mighty  glad  you  come  down  to  this  social 
function.  I  ain't  thought  of  nothin'  since  you 


come." 


"  Law,  now,  Dr.  Reginald  Launcelot,  aren't  you 
ashamed  of  yourself  to  fib  so  awful.  I  thought  you 
were  truthful — and  nice." 

Whereupon  Dr.  Reginald  Launcelot,  the  golden 
lady's  head  in  his  mouth,  adjusted  a  monocle  to  his 
right  eye,  extended  his  stomach,  balanced  himself 
unsteadily  on  his  sprawling  legs,  tilted  his  head  back 
and  to  the  left,  and  generally  assumed  that  lacka 
daisical  posture  so  prevalent  at  William  and  Mary. 
"  A  bold,  bad  man,"  thought  Miss  La  Salle.  "  She 
thinks  as  how  I'm  a  rake,"  thought  Dr.  Reginald 
Launcelot;  "a  fine  college  rake,  sporty,  and  nice — 
a  s'ciety  swell."  And  she  did. 

"  I'd  say  suppen  mighty  pertic'ler  if  so  many 
folks  wan't  around.  Better  talk  about  what's  on 


4i2  THE     BETRAYAL 

your  mind,   the   psychological   perfessor  at   Prince 
ton  says.     But  I'll  talk  about  marryin'  anyhow." 

Whereupon  the  Rice-Simpson  wedding  was  dis 
cussed  in  great  detail,  Miss  La  Salle  losing  her  heart 
the  while.  The  wedding  had  been  a  great  social 
function,  he  told  her.  All  the  ladies  of  the  patriotic 
societies  of  Fauquier  county  had  gathered  in  the 
Episcopal  church,  had  heard  the  marriage  vows,  and 
had  then  gone  to  the  Rice  home  for  supper.  There 
were  thirty-eight  articles  of  food  on  the  table,  be 
sides  fruit  punch  and  cider.  Every  gentleman  that 
was  present  was  more  or  less  drunk — fruit  punch 
and  cider  are  so  "  heady,"  you  know.  The  bride  was 
dressed  decolletee  in  white  satin,  the  gown  being 
heavily  veiled  in  yellow  machine-made  lace,  an  imi 
tation  of  rose-point,  and  enough  artificial  orange 
blossoms  were  on  her  head  to  give  one  the  impression 
that  she  was  a  millinery  shop.  The  hour  was  late 
when  the  bride  and  groom  left  for  Winchester  on 
their  wedding  trip. 

Leaving  her  booth  in  charge  of  a  visitor,  Miss 
Lancaster  went  to  visit  Miss  Dabney. 

"  Betty,  I've  got  a  whisper  to  whisper." 

"  You  have  taken  in  more  money  than  anybody 
else?" 

"No,  not  that;  I  have,  of  course,  but  that's  not  it. 
I— er— I— er- 

"  I  never  knew  you  to  hesitate  before  when  there 
was  a  secret  to  be  told." 

"  Gary  says  I'm  going  to  marry  him." 

"Are  you?" 

"  I— I— I  said  I  would." 

"When?" 


THE    BETRAYAL  413 

"A  few  days  before  Lent — on  account  of  Christ 
mas  and  New  Year's  presents,  you  know.  He  tried 
mighty  hard  to  get  me  to  marry  him  during  Christ 
mas  week,  but  I  just  would  not  consent." 

"  I  am  so  glad,  Gladys.  I  love  Cary — and  his 
wife  shall  be  my  sister." 

Then  Miss  Dabney  kissed  Miss  Lancaster  on  the 
lips,  Miss  Lancaster  returned  to  her  stall,  and  Miss 
Dabney  went  to  visit  Miss  Braxton. 

"Lelia,  Lelia,  Gladys  is  engaged  to  Cary!" 

"  Oh,  Betty,  how  pleased  you  must  be !  " 

"Yes,  indeed,  Lelia;  a  girl  is  always  glad  in  her 
brother's  happiness.  Then  Gladys  is  such  a  nice  girl, 
you  know — Cary  says  she  is  an  angel,  if  ever  there 
was  one,  and  he  must  know  her  very  well." 

"  Evidently." 

"  Lelia  I " 

"  You  have  no  other  secret,  have  you,  Betty  dear?  " 

"Why,  what  could  have  made  you  think  of  such 
a  thing?" 

"Your  oak  decorations,  dear;  and  just  now  I  sold 
the  lace  handkerchief  to  Mr.  Dandridge — the  one 
that  I  was  two  months  in  making." 

" Lelia!  Now  I  know  you  have  a  secret  to  tell 
me." 

"  I  have  no  secret." 

"No,  indeed,  certainly  not;  for  everybody  here 
saw  your  face  when  Mr.  Harrison's  name  was  men 
tioned  just  now." 

"  Betty,  what  can  be  the  matter  with  us?  I  know 
that  you  love  Byrd  Dandridge,  and  you  know  that  I 
love  John  Harrison — oh,  Betty,  what  am  I  saying?" 

"  Lelia,  dear  Lelia,  I  did  not  mean  to  make  light 


414  THE    BETRAYAL 

of  your  love — nor  mine.  Maybe,  dear,  we  just  must 
say  something  to  some  one — to  each  other." 

"  Do  you  think  that  a  man  would  talk  to  another 
man  about  his  love?" 

"I  wonder?" 

"  Oh,  Lelia,  look,  look — there  comes  that  horrid 
Rice  boy!  Oh,  oh,  just  see  his  condition!  Mrs. 
Braxton !  Mrs.  Braxton !  " 

"  I  am  coming,  dear." 

"  Evenin',  ladies.  I  seen  you  over  here,  an'  I 
seen  you  was  the  purttiest  gyurls  about,  so  I  done 
come  over  to  buy  you  out.  How  much  do  you  want 
for  these  here  things?  " 

Again  Dr.  Reginald  Launcelot's  language  was 
drunk;  Princeton  was  not  herself — was  she? 

'  Young  man,  your  mother,  while  she  was  my 
maid,  knew  her  place,  and  was  a  very  worthy  girl. 
Unless  you  behave  yourself,  and  unless  you  leave  the 
ladies  alone  during  the  rest  of  the  evening,  I  shall 
report  your  conduct  to  Mr.  Braxton." 

"Didn't  mean  no  harm,  ma'am,  'deed  I  didn't; 
I'm  a  gent,  an'  I  knows  how  to  conduct  myself  as 
sech." 

Dr.  Reginald  Launcelot  bowed  low,  with  all  the 
dignity  that  he  could  command,  then  took  his  way 
with  uncertain  steps  to  Miss  Eugenie  Victoria's 
stall. 

Virginian  yeoman  women  and  peasant  women  are 
pincushions.  They  never  sew  on  a  button  to  replace 
one  that  has  been  lost.  To-night  Eugenie  Victoria 
was  full  of  pins,  and  as  her  affectionate  brother 
placed  his  hand  caressingly,  "  gent'-like,"  upon  her 


THE    BETRAYAL  415 

shoulder,  like  a  "gent"  he  exclaimed,  "Damn  it! 
is  you  a  pin,  or  is  you  a  woman?" 

"  Reg'nal'  La'nc'lot,  why  can't  you  behave  your 
self  like  Stokes  an'  other  gent'men?" 

'"  Stokes  don't  drink  cider.  He's  too  mean — cider 
costs  five  cents  a  glass.  I  ain't  mean." 

"No,  you  certainly  ain't;  for  you's  full  all  the 
time,  that's  what  you  is." 

The  doctor  sought  a  milder  climate. 

Mrs.  Rice-Simpson — Miss  Phyllis  Daphne  newly 
wedded — drew  near  her  sister's  booth  as  her  brother 
took  his  departure.  She  was  buttoned  up,  not  hav 
ing  been  married  long. 

"The  perfessor  an'  me  was  mighty  glad  to  hear 
as  how  you  an'  Roger  had  made  up.  Maw  says 
you'll  be  Mrs.  Rice-Stokes  purtty  soon,  an'  me  an' 
the  perfessor  is  mighty  glad,  for  we  thinks  lovers' 
quarrels  is  so  unfortunate — men  is  mighty  hard  to 
get  these  days.  An'  Roger's  got  a  mighty  nice  little 
piece  of  property,  if  he  is  little  an'  loud." 

"  I  don't  want  no  patronisin'  from  you,  Phyllis 
Daphne,  I  don't;  so  you  needn't  put  on  no  airs  be 
cause  you's  married,  an'  married  to  a  bean  pole  as 
is  goin'  to  be  a  university  perfessor.  Mr.  Stokes 
is  got  money,  an'  that's  more'n  Simpson's  got;  an' 
he's  got  family  too,  Puritan  family.  Your  man 
ain't  nothin'  but  Stover's  nevvy  Gawge — 'what  am 
ter  say,  Perfessor  Gawge  Washin'ton  Laf'ette  Simp 
son,  as  teaches  over  ter  Laurel  Hill.' ' 

Then  Mrs.  Professor  sought  a  new  position,  one 
overlooking  Miss  Braxton's  booth,  where  unobserved 
she  could  see  the  demeanour  of  real  ladies.  She 
would  enter  Charlottesville  society  soon,  and  felt 


416  THE    BETRAYAL 

that  she  was  a  bit  rusty  concerning  the  customs  of 
the  aristocracy — her  mother  had  not  been  a  maid 
for  many  years. 

Gentle  reader,  your  narrators  will  whisper  to  you 
that  Professor  Simpson  and  Mrs.  Rice-Simpson  in 
time  became  leaders  in  the  society  of  Charlottesville, 
where  they  still  reside. 

"How  are  your  girls,  Sue?"  asked  Mrs.  Brax- 
ton. 

"  They  have  taken  in  very  little  money,  sister,  but 
they  seem  to  be  enjoying  themselves.  Your  girls  are 
happy,  if  they  are  poor.  I  have  just  visited  their 
booths." 

"The  Repudiators  did  not  bring  their  money  with 
them,  and  the  Debtpayers,  while  they  have  contribu 
ted  generously — well,  Sue,  there  are  not  many  Debt- 
payers.  Do  you  see  that  tall,  thin,  hungry-looking 
man  over  there?  He  is  wealthy,  but  he  paid  only 
five  cents  for  three  apples  that  he  bought  at  Jane 
Clarke's  booth,  which  he  peeled  with  his  penknife, 
then  slowly  ate.  Ugh,  the  people ! — the  people  as 
they  are  to-day." 

"  At  least  there  are  two  peasants  in  Fauquier  that 
are  not  ashamed  of  their  class — Joe  Miller  and  Mary 
Scott." 

"Oh,  tell  me  about  the  wedding!" 

"  Well,  Joe  wanted  to  marry  at  once,  but  Mary 
said  wait  a  year,  that  she  might  have  time  to  ac 
custom  herself  to  such  an  awful  idea.  I  talked  to  her 
for  half  an  hour,  saying  that  there  is  nothing  to  be 
ashamed  of  in  the  fulfillment  of  the  highest  destiny 
of  woman,  so  Mary  and  Joe  were  married  last 
night  at  eight  o'clock  by  the  Methodist  minister. 


THE    BETRAYAL  417 

Law,  it  was  a  pretty  sight,  sister!  I  helped  Mary 
dress  as  if  she  were  my  own  daughter;  and,  do 
you  know,  she  was  so  dainty  and  pretty  I  just  had 
to  kiss  her — on  the  brow.  Joe  and  the  Methodist 
minister  came  in  together  about  eight  o'clock  and 
sat  in  the  hall  until  Mary  was  ready.  Then  we  all 
stood  in  the  doorway,  between  the  drawing-room  and 
the  library — and  then  only  one  family  of  proper 
peasants  was  left  in  Fauquier.  The  child  looked  so 
pretty  I  lifted  her  veil  and  kissed  her  again — on  her 
brow." 

Mrs.  Daingerfield  did  not  say  that  she  had  gone  to 
her  room  after  Joe  and  Mary  left  and  cried. 

"  I  hope  they  will  have  a  large  family,  Sue." 

"  I  hope  so,  sister.  Several  generations  back  there 
were  a  good  many  sets  of  twins  in  both  the  Scott 
and  the  Miller  families.  I  hope  the  new  family  will 
do  well." 

The  Virginian  peasant,  when  a  domestic  servant, 
usually  was  married  at  her  master's  home,  although 
sometimes  the  young  man  and  the  young  woman 
went  quietly  to  their  place  of  worship,  or  to  the 
home  of  their  minister,  and  there  were  married 
about  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  Sometimes  the 
hour  would  be  later;  sometimes  earlier.  The  wed 
ding  was  always  unostentatious,  the  master's  family 
never  dressing  for1  the  occasion,  and  rarely  were 
relatives  of  the  bride  and  groom  present.  The  wed 
ding  party,  aside  from  the  master's  family,  was  sel 
dom  more  than  three  or  four  persons. 

"  Cap'n  Temple,  Cap'n  Temple,  Cap'n  Temple, 
Cap'n  Temple!  Oh,  Cap'n  Temple!  DIMI-U  come 
over  here  an'  bring  some  s'ciety  gents  along  with 


420  THE    BETRAYAL 

room,  where  she  would  meet  her  sovereign,  the  aris 
tocracy. 

"  Lawd's  sakes,  Cap'n  Temple,  it  du-u-u  seem  like 
matrimony's  in  the  air,  don't  it?" 

"  I  heard  of  the  engagement  of  Mr.  Dabney  and 
Miss  Lancaster  to-night;  but  I  know  of  no  other 
recent  engagement." 

"  You  ain't  heard  what  I'm  thinkin'  about, 
though  you  do  know  as  how  Eugenie  Victoria  an' 
Stokes  is  goin'  to  get  spliced;  but  you  ain't  heard 
what  I'm  thinkin'  about." 

"  No,  Mrs.  Rice,  I  am  unable  to  hear  your 
thoughts." 

"Well,  there  was  a  mighty  fashionable  weddin' 
up  to  Richmond,  James  P.  says,  come  last  week — a 
double-weddin',  as  set  all  Richmond's  s'ciety  figurin'. 
I've  been  thinkin'  a  double-weddin'  in  Warrenton 
come  this  fall  would  be  mighty  fashionable.  An' 
law,  Cap'n  Temple,  I  jest  must  tell  you  a  joke  as 
happened  down  to  Fairfax.  A  young  man  down 
there  was  a-settin'  up  to  a  gyurl,  an'  he  just  couldn't 
pop;  so  the  gyurl's  maw  she  stuck  a  notice  in  the 
Fairfax  paper,  sayin'  as  how  her  gyurl  an'  the  young 
man  was  goin'  to  be  wed.  An'  sure  enough  they 
was,  for  the  day  was  all  set  out  in  the  paper.  The 
'gyurl  went  to  her  maw  the  day  befo'  the  weddin', 
an'  says,  says  she,  '  Maw,  he  ain't  said  nothin'  to 
me  yet.'  I  du-u-u  think  her  maw  was  rather  previous, 
because  a  gyurl  does  so  like  to  have  love  talked  into 
her.  If  there  ain't  no  sech  talk  befo'  they  gets  wed 
ded,  they  ain't  goin'  to  be  none." 

"  Mrs.  Rice,  if  any  mother,  no  matter  how  fair 
her  daughter,  were  to  place  me  in  a  situation  like 
that,  I  never  would  speak  to  the  daughter  again, 


THE     BETRAYAL  421 

and  I  certainly  would  provide  an  adequate  punish 
ment  for  the  mother." 

After  several  minutes'  silence  Mrs.  Rice  con 
tinued: 

"  Simpson  and  Stokes  oughter  be  mighty  proud  of 
what  they  done,  Cap'n.  Both  of  them  have  out- 
married  themselves  by  right  considerable.  James 
P.  an'  me  talked  about  the  thing,  an'  we  thought  it 
all  for  the  best,  but  mighty  unfortunate.  Comes 
outen  the  times,  James  P.  says,  for  the  bottom  rail's 
on  top  these  days,  an'  no  family  of  gyurls  can  afford 
to  be  too  choosey.  James  P.,  he  didn't  take  on  to 
the  thing  in  no  way  at  first,  an'  Eugenie  Victoria 
du  say  as  how  he  was  downright  imperlite  to  Stokes 
when  he  up  an'  asked  for  her;  but  I  argued  this  way; 
I  says,  says  I :  James  P.,  give  them  two  gents  a 
chance,  an'  they'll  polish  up  mighty.  Jest  look  at 
young  Mr.  Dandridge  a-workin'  in  his  overhalls,  his 
hands  gettin'  rough  from  work — the  best  of  us  will 
run  down  at  the  heels  if  you  sets  us  up  in  the  back 
woods." 

"  There  is  no  denying  the  truth  of  the  saying  that 
isolation  is  the  mother  of  barbarism." 

"  It  certainly  is  so,  Cap'n.  I  never  seen  nothin' 
like  the  way  Doc  come  up  after  he  went  in  and  out 
of  Princeton.  Why,  Cap'n,  William  an'  Mary  an' 
the  University  of  Virginia  didn't  hardly  teach  that 
boy  how  to  put  on  his  pants;  but  when  he  come  back 
from  Princeton  he  dressed  stylish-like,  an'  he  looked 
stylish-like,  an'  he  talked  stylish-like — exceptin'  when 
he  took  too  much  cider.  Princeton  certainly  can  pile 
the  style  on  to  a  boy." 

"  You  have  reason  to  be  proud  of  Reginald  Laun- 
celot." 


420  THE    BETRAYAL 

room,  where  she  would  meet  her  sovereign,  the  aris 
tocracy. 

"  Lawd's  sakes,  Cap'n  Temple,  it  du-u-u  seem  like 
matrimony's  in  the  air,  don't  it?" 

"  I  heard  of  the  engagement  of  Mr.  Dabney  and 
Miss  Lancaster  to-night;  but  I  know  of  no  other 
recent  engagement." 

"You  ain't  heard  what  I'm  thinkin'  about, 
though  you  do  know  as  how  Eugenie  Victoria  an' 
Stokes  is  goin'  to  get  spliced;  but  you  ain't  heard 
what  I'm  thinkin'  about." 

"  No,  Mrs.  Rice,  I  am  unable  to  hear  your 
thoughts." 

"Well,  there  was  a  mighty  fashionable  weddin' 
up  to  Richmond,  James  P.  says,  come  last  week — a 
double-weddin',  as  set  all  Richmond's  s'ciety  figurin'. 
I've  been  thinkin'  a  double-weddin'  in  Warrenton 
come  this  fall  would  be  mighty  fashionable.  An* 
law,  Cap'n  Temple,  I  jest  must  tell  you  a  joke  as 
happened  down  to  Fairfax.  A  young  man  down 
there  was  a-settin'  up  to  a  gyurl,  an'  he  just  couldn't 
pop;  so  the  gyurl's  maw  she  stuck  a  notice  in  the 
Fairfax  paper,  sayin'  as  how  her  gyurl  an'  the  young 
man  was  goin'  to  be  wed.  An'  sure  enough  they 
was,  for  the  day  was  all  set  out  in  the  paper.  The 
gyurl  went  to  her  maw  the  day  befo'  the  weddin', 
an'  says,  says  she,  '  Maw,  he  ain't  said  nothin'  to 
me  yet.'  I  du-u-u  think  her  maw  was  rather  previous, 
because  a  gyurl  does  so  like  to  have  love  talked  into 
her.  If  there  ain't  no  sech  talk  befo'  they  gets  wed 
ded,  they  ain't  goin'  to  be  none." 

"  Mrs.  Rice,  if  any  mother,  no  matter  how  fair 
her  daughter,  were  to  place  me  in  a  situation  like 
that,  I  never  would  speak  to  the  daughter  again, 


THE     BETRAYAL  421 

and  I  certainly  would  provide  an  adequate  punish 
ment  for  the  mother." 

After  several  minutes'  silence  Mrs.  Rice  con 
tinued  : 

"  Simpson  and  Stokes  oughter  be  mighty  proud  of 
what  they  done,  Cap'n.  Both  of  them  have  out- 
married  themselves  by  right  considerable.  James 
P.  an'  me  talked  about  the  thing,  an'  we  thought  it 
all  for  the  best,  but  mighty  unfortunate.  Comes 
outen  the  times,  James  P.  says,  for  the  bottom  rail's 
on  top  these  days,  an'  no  family  of  gyurls  can  afford 
to  be  too  choosey.  James  P.,  he  didn't  take  on  to 
the  thing  in  no  way  at  first,  an'  Eugenie  Victoria 
du  say  as  how  he  was  downright  imperlite  to  Stokes 
when  he  up  an'  asked  for  her;  but  I  argued  this  way; 
I  says,  says  I :  James  P.,  give  them  two  gents  a 
chance,  an'  they'll  polish  up  mighty.  Jest  look  at 
young  Mr.  Dandridge  a-workin'  in  his  overhalls,  his 
hands  gettin'  rough  from  work — the  best  of  us  will 
run  down  at  the  heels  if  you  sets  us  up  in  the  back 
woods." 

"  There  is  no  denying  the  truth  of  the  saying  that 
isolation  is  the  mother  of  barbarism." 

"  It  certainly  is  so,  Cap'n.  I  never  seen  nothin' 
like  the  way  Doc  come  up  after  he  went  in  and  out 
of  Princeton.  Why,  Cap'n,  William  an'  Mary  an* 
the  University  of  Virginia  didn't  hardly  teach  that 
boy  how  to  put  on  his  pants;  but  when  he  come  back 
from  Princeton  he  dressed  stylish-like,  an'  he  looked 
stylish-like,  an'  he  talked  stylish-like — exceptin'  when 
he  took  too  much  cider.  Princeton  certainly  can  pile 
the  style  on  to  a  boy." 

"  You  have  reason  to  be  proud  of  Reginald  Laun- 
celot" 


422  THE     BETRAYAL 

"Well,  Cap'n,  I'm  proud  to  death  of  the  doctor — 
an'  Dorothea  Annabel  too.  Thems  lovely  children. 
Comes  from  the  good  blood  in  their  veins.  Their 
great-great-grandfather  was  a  cor-po-re-al  in  the 
Revolutionary  army.  That's  how  I  got  into  the  pa 
triotic  s'ciety." 

"A  great  distinction  indeed." 
'There  ain't  nothin'  like  a  college  eddication  to 
give  a  boy  a  finish,   an'  there  ain't  nothin'  like  a 
bo'din'-school  to  finish  off  a  gyurl  with." 

"  Surely  the  home  training  of  a  mother  so  cul 
tured  as  yourself  is  superior  to  the  superficial  edu 
cation  that  a  girl  acquires  at  a  boarding-school,  where 
girls  are  fed  education  in  much  the  way  one  feeds 
chickens  in  an  incubator." 

"  Law,  Cap'n,  you  du-u-u  say  seen  perlite  language 
an'  things.  I'd  give  anything  if  my  other  two  son- 
in-laws — meanin'  Stokes  an'  Simpson — had  some  of 
your  pleasantry.  Yes,  Phyllis  Daphne  has  been  taken 
from  me,  an'  soon  I'll  lose  Eugenie  Victoria;  but 
as  I  told  Reg'nal'  La'nc'lot,  much  as  I  hates  old 
maids,  I  despises  old  bachelors  mo'.  They  is  so 
grumpy.  When  a  man  gets  to  be  risin'  thirty-five  an' 
up  it's  his  duty,  I  says,  to  wed  some  nice  gyurl.  Now, 
jest  look  over  at  Dorothea  Annabel;  ain't  she  too 
purtty  for  anything,  blushin'-like,  jest  because  she 
seen  you  over  here  with  me.  An'  you  ain't  taken  me 
to  a  single  stand,  but  jest  walked  me  around  out 
here  in  the  back  as  where  nobody's  lookin'.  When 
I  has  a  handsome  young  gent  like  you  'scortin'  me 
I  likes  people  to  see  what  a  fine  motherly-lookin' 
s'ciety  woman  I  is." 

"  And  you,  Mrs.  Rice,  have  not  told  me  the 
secret." 


THE    BETRAYAL  423 

"  Law,  Cap'n,  you  told  me  so  many  fine  things  the 
secret's  went  clean  outen  my  head." 

They  approached  the  Rice  booth,  and  Mrs.  Rice 
continued,  speaking  in  low  tones. 

"  Now,  Cap'n,  du-u-u  take  Dorothea  Annabel  for 
a  turn  up  an'  down!  I  knows  Gladys  Lancaster 
would  like  to  see  her.  They  went  to  school  together. 
Now  du-u-u" 

"Presently,  Mrs.  Rice;  but  I  must  go  ta  Miss 
Braxton's  stall  now,  for  she  beckoned  to  me  a  minute 
ago." 

"  No  doubt  you  had  expected  to  see  me  earlier  in 
the  evening,  Miss  Braxton;  but  I  have  been  shaking 
my  political  dice — an  unforgivable  offence  with  some; 
yet  I  know  that  you  will  not  permit  political  differ 
ences  to  disrupt  a  long  friendship." 

"  William,  please  take  charge  of  my  booth  until 
I  return." 

As  Captain  Temple  strolled  toward  Miss  Lan 
caster's  booth  he  could  almost  hear  himself  think. 

"  A  nigger  to  wait  on  a  nigger ;  a  very  clever  reply, 
my  beauteous  one.  Wit  will  reign  supreme  in  my 
home  when  you  are  Mrs.  T.  That  sounds  too  much 
like  James  P.  No,  you  are  not  Gladys,  but  my  own 
gentle  Lelia.  You  left  the  booth  in  charge  of  Wil 
liam  not  because  he  is  a  coon,  but  to  escape  my 
ardent  adoration.  I  prefer  Lelia  Braxton  to  Gladys 
Lancaster — and  maybe  I  love  little  Dolly  very,  very 
much.  Heigho!  Gladys  would  have  said,  'Here, 
William,  birds  of  a  feather  flock  together;  but  I 
don't  mean  to  hurt  your  feelings,  William,  for  you're 
a  very  respectable  coloured  man.'  Now  I  will  take 
a  glass  of  Gladys,  my  favourite  drink." 


424  THE    BETRAYAL 

Captain  Temple  imitated  Mr.  Carter's  walk  as 
he  went  toward  Miss  Lancaster's  booth. 

"  In  a  young  woman  that  is  about  to  be  married, 
madam,  your  conduct  is  most  unseemly.  Cease, 
cease  your  flirtatious  ways!  Arouse  not  the  pangs 
of  jealousy  in  the  heart  of  your  ardent  lover.  Be 
good !  " 

"Mr.  Carter,  sir,  I  won't  do  so  no  mo';  please, 
sir,  please,  I  won't  do  so  no  mo' !  " 

"  And  to  think,  Gladys  Lancaster  has  thrown  her 
self  away  on  Cary  Dabney,  the  defeated  candidate 
for  governor.  How  popper  and  mommer  must  be 
shocked.  But  you  just  keep  right  on,  and  the  first 
thing  you  know  you  will  have  flirted  yourself 
right  out  of  your  engagement.  See  yonder  Moor, 
his  dark  face  lowering  on  the  horizon  of  jealousy. 
He " 

"  You  talk  so  much,  Captain  Temple,  I  just  can't 
follow  you.  I'm  not  sure  I  ought  to  talk  to  you, 
now  that  I'm  engaged;  but  I'll  say  just  one  teensy, 
tinesy  little  word,  'cause  I  want  to  know  how  you 
came  to  know  I  was  engaged.  I'm  not  sure  I  am, 
you  know;  but  I  want  you  to  tell  me  how  you  found 
out." 

"The  news  comes  through  Gladys  Lancaster,  by 
way  of  all  here  present.  Gladys  was  unable  to  keep 
a  secret,  so  she  told  her  friend;  and  her  friend  was 
unable  to  keep  a  secret;  so  she  told  her  friend;  and 
her  friend  was  unable  to  keep  a  secret,  so  she 
told " 

"  Shut  up  ! — I  only  told  Betty  Dabney  seven  min 
utes  ago.  My,  that  was  fine — the  way  Lelia  Brax- 
ton  turned  you  down !  Poor  boy,  I'd  take  you  to 
my  heart  right  away,  but  Othello  looketh  not  kindly 


THE    BETRAYAL  425 

o'er  here.  .  .  If  I  were  not  such  a  good 

soul  I'd  ask  you  to  go." 

"  And  you  would  make  a  great  mistake,  for  a  little 
jealousy — but  how  can  Jimmy  Temple  instruct 
Gladys  Lancaster  in  the  devious  paths  of  love." 

"  No ;  I'm  not  Dorothea  Annabel.  Now  get  along 
with  you,  Jim ;  I  daresn't  let  you  stay  a  minute  longer 
• — I  don't  want  to  jilt  Gary  Dabney  before  anybody 
knows  I'm  engaged  to  him." 

"They  all  know,  my  dear;  but  I's  a  virtuous  man, 
I  is ;  so  exit  the  discarded  lover." 

"  Really,  Colonel,  I  have  absorbed  some  of  the 
information  which  you  have  spread  broadcast  ^with 
great  prodigality,  as  Mr.  Carter  would  say;  so  I 
dislike  to  tax  your  generosity  further;  but,  sir,  while 
you  have  said  (and  I  think  that  I  have  understood) 
that  the  voice  of  the  people  is  heard  through  our 
noses,  you  have  not  explained  to  us,  so  that  I  could 
understand,  how  the  soft  voice  of  the  gentry  is  to  be 
heard  above  the  bray  of  Murphy's  plain  people." 

"  A  speech  of  extraordinary  length  to  have  been 
spoken  by  you,  Lancaster,  and  very  well  put  together. 
I  am  glad  to  observe  that  you  have  acquired  some 
knowledge  of  rhetoric — that  you  have  learned  more 
than  mere  political  wisdom  of  me.  So  great  has 
been  your  improvement,  sir,  I  feel  justified  in  ex 
plaining  to  you  by  a  simple  illustration,  not  beyond 
your  understanding,  that  the  soft  music  of  the 
gentry's  voice  hath  charms  to  soothe  the  people's 
savage  breast.  An  elephant,  sir,  is  larger  than 
his  trainer;  yet,  sir,  that  beast  obeys  his  trainer's 
will." 

"  Sometimes  the  trainer's  killed." 


426  THE    BETRAYAL 

"  And  sometimes  the  people,  directed  by  a  dema 
gogue,  through  superior  physical  force,  overthrow 
the  government  of  their  masters.  But,  sir,  they  reign 
only  a  little  while,  and  their  days  are  full  of  trouble. 
Murphy's  Sam  Kelly  superior  to  Braxton,  sir?  Mur 
phy's  nigger  Shad  superior  to  Mr.  Carter?  Lan 
caster,  your  place  is  with  the  ladies." 

"  Dorothea  Annabel,  all  the  evening  long  I  have 
lingered  about  your  booth,  as  Proserpine  lingered 
amid  the  flowers.  In  my  dreams  I  have  seen  you, 
my  dear  Dorothea  Annabel, — who  is  not  Stokes' 
little  Dolly  yet, — blushing  like  the  rose  that  you  are. 
And  now  I  see  you,  yet  I  see  not  the  roses  about  you, 
for  you  are  the  fairest  of  them  all." 

"And  this  is  the  first  time  that  you  have  been 
near  me.  Miss  Braxton,  Miss  Lancaster,  Miss  Dab- 
ney,  you  have  been  about  their  stalls — but  never  once 
near  mine,  until  now." 

Oh,  why  would  he  not  understand  that  she  did  not 
love  Stokes?  Oh,  why  had  she  been  so  unwise  as 
to  tell  him  about  the  miserable  little  carpetbagger's 
proposal? 

"  Not  for  a  single  minute  have  I  been  absent  from 
your  booth,  little  Dolly, — not  for  a  single  minute. 
My  eyes,  my  heart,  my  soul — the  best  of  me  has 
been  with  you  in  your  booth,  Dorothea.  Always  the 
best  of  me  lives  in  you — and  will  die  when  Mr. 
Stokes  takes  you  to  be  his  wife." 

Was  that  a  stifled  dry  sob  that  Captain  Temple 
heard  as  Dorothea  Annabel  turned  to  her  guests? 

"Why  there  is  my  dear  old  friend,  Miss  La  Salle! 
> — and  you,  Miss  Maiabelle!  Miss  Dorothea  An 
nabel,  you  did  not  tell  me  that  you  had  visitors.  A 


THE    BETRAYAL  427 

candidate  has  very  little  time  to  devote  to1  society, 
but  I  would  have  called  on  your  guests  had  I  known 
that  they  were  here.  I  returned  from  a  canvass  of 
every  county  in  my  district  only  this  morning.  How 
is  the  General?  I  remember  the  excellent  dinner — 
dear  Miss  Amanda  Burgess.  Did  Miss  Amanda 
come  with  you?" 

"  Maiabelle  has  just  returned  from  New  York." 
Then  Miss  Maiabelle  talked  and  talked  and  talked 
and  talked;  and  Miss  Maiabelle  would  talk  and  talk 
and  talk  and  talk  so  long  as  she  would  live.  The 
dead  do  not  talk;  the  dead  do  not  hear;  blessed  are 
the  dead — of  Virginia.  Your  narrators,  gentle 
reader,  write  of  the  period  when  very  good  Virgin 
ian  girls  went  to  New  York  when  they  died.  Now 
they  go  to  Europe  when  they  die — and  their  friends 
die. 

The  former  pincushion  paused  in  front  of  the  pin 
cushion's  stall.  The  pincushion  was  well-behaved — 
for  a  pincushion. 

"  Eugenie  Victoria,  I  ain't  quite  satisfied,  me  an* 
the  Perfessor,  with  the  way  you  is  behavin'  yourself. 
You  ain't  lookin'  exactly  fashionable — but  then  you 
is  tall,  an?  I  s'pose  you  can't  help  that.  But  when 
me  an'  the  Perfessor  was  over  to  Winchester  on  our 
weddin'  tower  we  seen  that  the  style  was  the  Grecian 
bend  in  the  back  an'  a  drop  to  the  front  in  the  shoul 
ders.  So-fashion,  Eugenie  Victoria;  so-fashion." 

"  Phyllis  Daphne,  I  done  told  you  I  don't  want 
none  your  patronisin'.  You  is  younger  than  me;  an' 
I  don't  see  no  sense  in  no  gyurl  chaperonin'  her  older 
sister  nohow — pertic'ler  when  she  ain't  been  married 
but  three  week.  Does  three  week  make  you  so  much 


428  THE    BETRAYAL 

smart'n  me?  Funny  thing,  no  gyurl's  married  more'n 
three  days  befo'  she's  after  chaperonin'.     You  ain't 
goin'  to  chaperone  me,  Phyllis  Daphne;  so  you  an' 
your  bean-pole  can  move  on." 
They  did. 

"  I  will  sell  you  the  scarf,  Byrd,  if  you  insist;  but 
you  have  already  bought  a  very  expensive  handker 
chief  of  me,  and  I  think  you  should  buy  of  Betty — 
if  you  intend  to  spend  any  more  money." 

"  I  had  rather  not  buy  from  Miss  Betty." 

"  Mr.  Taliaferro,  please  take  the  rest  of  your 
money  over  to  Lelia's  camp.  I  have  had  more  than 
my  share  of  it,  and  I  am  not  going  to  take  another 
cent  from  you.  If  I  did  not  know  that  every  gentle 
man  will  raffle  his  purchases  at  midnight,  I  suppose 
I  would  think  that  you  intend  to  give  all  these  things 
to  some  girl;  but  as  I  know  what  I  know,  I  am  not 
going  to  take  any  more  of  your  money." 

"  Then  I  shall  go  the  rounds  of  the  five  Clarke 
booths." 

"Do  I" 


"  Gary,  I  congratulate  you." 

"  I  thank  you,  Byrd.  And  when  I  say  that  I 
thank  you,  I  give  you  all  the  thanks  that  belong  to 
the  gentlemen  here — except  Captain  Lancaster,  and 
every  letter  in  the  words  of  congratulation  that  he 
spoke  was  profane — not  literally,  but  I  could  hear 
an  oath  in  every  word  that  he  uttered:  'Well, 
Cary;  I  congratulate  you — ten  millions  of  dollars 
for  three  words — at  least  that's  what  I  could  have 
got  for  Gladys.'  I  thank  you,  Byrd." 


THE    BETRAYAL  429 

Judge  Braxton  knew  that  Miss  Dabney  was  within 
hearing,  nor  was  his  voice  moderated  because  of  her 
proximity  when  he  addressed  young  Mr.  Tazewell. 

"  Byrd  Dandridge  was  born  a  Virginian,  and  a 
Virginian  he  has  been  since  the  day  of  his  birth;  but 
he  was  a  Greek  and  a  Roman  and  an  Englishman— 
and  a  Virginian — when  he  gave  his  fortune  and  his 
ancestral  lands  to  Virginia,  and  went  into  her  forests 
to  build  for  himself  a  home." 

Mr.  Carter  took  up  the  judge's  last  words. 

"A  home  for  himself — and  for  his  wife,  I  hope. 
And  proud  will  be  the  Virginian  maid  who  goes 
forth  to  meet  such  a  lord — the  king  of  the  wilder 
ness.  Proud  will  she  be  to  share  his  hardships  and 
help  him  to  build  a  home  that  shall  be  the  pride 
of  all  Virginia." 

And  Betty  Dabney — ah,  she  was  so  pretty,  she 
must  have  overheard. 

"You  leave  that  do',  Andy;  up  an'  leave  it  right 
away;  there  ain't  nobody  else  comin'  in,  an'  I  want 
you,  I  do;  I  wants  everybody  here  to  know  as  how 
I'm  jest  as  good  as  anybody  else,  an'  I's  goin'  to 
show  'em,  I  is !  " 

The  smith  feared  no  man;  but  he  feared  all 
women,  and  of  all  women  he  feared  Mrs.  Stover 
most. 

"  Maw,  I  believe  in  up-liftin'  our  owns,  I  do;  but 
summers  I  don't  'low  as  you  an'  me  is  fitten  fer 
s'ciety.  You  let  me  stay  by  the  do' — ef  you  won't 
let  me  go  an'  git  a  little  suppen  now.  Maw,  I  feels 
mighty  thirsty;  jest  let  me  go  out  an'  git  a  little  bit 
o'  cider?" 

"  If  one  drop  gits  down  yo'  throat  this  here  night, 


430  THE    BETRAYAL 

Andy  Stover,  soon's  we  gits  home  I'll  break  every 
piece  o'  furniture  in  the  house  'cross  yo'  wuthless 
haid.  Now  you  come  an'  'scort  me  'roun';  fer  I'm 
goin'  ter  show  them  uppety  females  as  how  ladies  is 
ladies.  There  ain't  no  gals  in  Virginia,  there  ain't 
no  womens  in  Virginia — all  females  is  ladies;  looks 
er  like,  wears  female  clo'es.  An'  you  come  'long, 
too,  little  Andy.  Wish  I  had  er  little  sister  fer  you 
to  hang  onto  yo'  arm;  but  the  Stovers  all  run  to 
boys." 

Little  Mrs.  Stover  took  hold  of  the  giant  smith's 
arm,  which  limply  hung  by  his  side.  The  youngest 
Stover  of  them  all, — except  four  others, — a  lad  of 
nine,  followed  behind  his  father,  tightly  grasping  one 
of  the  tails  of  his  sire's  coat  with  one  hand.  They 
advanced  toward  Miss  Lancaster's  booth,  the  little 
lady  holding  her  head  high,  switching  herself,  and 
giving  every  one  to  understand  by  her  manner  that 
not  only  was  she  as  good  as  anybody  there,  but  a 
great  deal  better. 

"Hello,  Andy!  Running  with  the  hares  and 
hunting  with  the  hounds?" 

"  Now,  jest  what  does  you  mean  by  that,  Miss 
Lancaster;  jest  what  does  you  mean?  I  ain't  never 
been  introduced  to  you,  but  I  knows  who  you  is,  an' 
I  jest  wants  you  to  know  as  how  my  man  ain't  runnin' 
with  no  woman.  I's  his  lawful  wife,  I  is,  an'  I  ain't 
no  hare  an'  I  ain't  no  houn'.  I's  as  good  as  you  is 
any  day,  an'  no  self-respectin'  woman  as  is  no  more'n 
er  slip  of  er  gal  says  sech  things  befo'  gent'man,  an' 
they  don't  even  think  sech  things  nohow." 

"  Why,  Mrs.  Stover,  I'm  so  glad  to  see  you ! 
Your  husband  and  I  are  such  old  friends — we 
haven't  been  introduced  yet,  but  I've  driven  by  his 


THE    BETRAYAL  431 

blacksmith  shop  often,  and  I've  seen  the  good  hon 
est  perspiration  just  rolling  down  his  face — now 
haven't  I,  Mr.  Stover?  I  didn't  mean  what  you 
thought  I  meant;  but  you  know,  Mr.  Blacksmith, 
don't  you?" 

"  Cat! — that's  what  I  said!  You  needn't  look  at 
me  that  ways — cat !  " 

"Look,  Mr.  Dabney;  oh,  look,  look! — just  look 
at  that  Stover  boy's  mouth! — isn't  it  the  biggest 
thing  you  ever  saw?" 

"  Don'  ker  ef  'tis  big — 'twill  do  to  prez  my  Gawd 
wid." 

The  boy  was  solemn,  his  voice  was  deep.  And  on 
went  the  Stovers,  on  for  further  conquests — on  to 
"  better  their  owns." 

"  Gladys,  do  you  love  Temple,  or  do  you  love 
me?" 

"  Why,  Gary,  you  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  your 
self,  you  certainly  ought.  I've  had  a  horrid  even 
ing  just  because  you  have  moped  over  there  in  the 
corner  ever  since  you  came,  scowling  at  every  man 
that  came  near  me.  If  I  were  a  man  I  would  trust 
the  girl  that  /  loved.  I  believe  I'm  going  to 
cry." 

"  You  have  behaved  outrageously.  You  have  at 
tracted  the  attention  of  everybody  here.  Captain 
Temple,  the  associate  of  negroes,  my  enemy,  the 
most  contemptible  black  man  in  this  commonwealth, 
has  been  singled  out  by  you  for  your  especial  fa 
vour.  Three  times  he  has  been  in  earnest  conversa 
tion  with  you,  hanging  over  your  words  as  if  they 
meant  his  life's  happiness.  Gladys,  is  Captain  Tem 
ple  your  choice? — now,  while  no  one  is  here  to 


432  THE     BETRAYAL 

interrupt  us,  tell  me:  is  Captain  Temple  your 
choice?  " 

Miss  Lancaster  averted  her  beautiful  face,  ar 
ranged  her  position  so  that  she  would  be  unobserved 
by  all  save  Mr.  Dabney,  crushed  her  unusually  pretty 
lace  handkerchief  against  her  very  beautiful  eyes, 
and  wept,  bitterly  wept,  but  beautifully — wept  the 
kind  of  tears  that  Mr.  Rice  derisively  would  have 
termed  crocodile,  and  altogether  presented  a  picture 
of  charming  outraged  girlish  innocence. 

"Forgive  me,  Gladys;  ah,  forgive  me!  I  was  a 
brute,  a  jealous  brute!  Not  for  all  the  world  would 
I  hurt  you.  You  know  that,  Gladys;  you  know  that, 
dear?" 

"  I — I'll — try — oh,  so  hard  ! — to  forget — this  time. 
Oh— oh!" 

And  before  you  could  have  said  Jack  Robinson 
no  trace  of  the  Gladys  storm  was  left,  for  Betty 
Dabney — Betty,  who  could  not  be  deceived — rapidly 
approached. 

"  Let  me  kiss  you,  Gary,  my  dear  brother  who  is 
to  be  married.  No  one  will  see  us  except  Gladys — 
and  you  will  not  be  jealous,  will  you,  Gladys?" 

"No-o-o;  I  never  could  be  jealous." 

"  Father  wishes  to  see  you,  Gary;  and  I  wish  to 
see  Gladys  all  alone  for  a  few  minutes." 

"What  is  it,  Betty?" 

"  Dear  Gladys,  now  that  you  are  to  be  my  sister, 
please  come  to  stay  a  long  time  with  us." 

"No,  Betty  dear,  no;  not  until  I  enter  the  Dab 
ney  home  as  boss.  I'm  no  fool.  If  Gladys  went  in 
as  a  sweetheart,  she  would  never  go  in  as  a 
wife." 

"  Suit  yourself,  Gladys.     I  am  sorry  that  you  are 


THE    BETRAYAL  433 

so  uncertain  of  Gary's  love;  I  should  think  that  you 
would  wish  to  test  it  in  every  possible  way." 

"I  guess  I'm  wrong,  Betty  dear;  but  I  know  so 
very  little  about  men,  you  know." 

"Them  bureau  things  is  worth  two  dollar  even 
money,  Stokes.  But  I  won't  call  up  to  you,  Stokes, 
that  you  ain't  bought  but  seventeen  cent  worth  from 
me  yet;  an'  I  dunno  as  what  I'm  goin'  do  with  them 
triflin'  things,  if  you  means  to  give  'em  to  me.  But 
maybe  you've  bought  from  them  as  is  ladies  as  is  a 
little  mightier  in  the  world — as  they  thinks — than 
the  Rice  gyurls." 

"  I  ain't  bought  nothin'  'cep'  from  you,  Eugenie 
Victoria,  as  is  soon  to  be  Mrs.  Rice-Stokes.  What's 
mo-r-re,  I  don't  see  as  how  you  need  them  bureau 
things.  Now,  wher-r-re  I  comes  frum,  up  to  hum, 
them  kind  of  fixin's  is  called  wasteful — sinful  waste 
ful.  I  'lows  as  it's  time  as  you  an'  me  wus  savin'. 
Come  October  an'  we'll  be  married." 

"  You  is  a  close-fisted  Yankee,  Stokes,  that  what 
you  is." 

"  I's  careful,  Eugenie  Victoria;  an'  that's  mo-r-r-n 
you  folks  daown  her-r-re  is." 

"  Maw  says  you  is  mighty  careful.  She  says,  says 
she,  '  James  P.,  unbosom  yourself,  likes  a  charitable 
man,  an'  give  po'  Eugenie  Victoria  a  lot  of  weddin' 
clothin',  because  I  'low  as  that  Yankee  ain't  goin'  to 
cover  her  back  when  she's  Rice-Stokes.'  An'  James 
P.  says,  says  he,  '  Maw,  I  ain't  s'portin'  no  other 
man's  family,  I  ain't.  Bad  enough  to  have  a  marry- 
in'-in,  but  I  shorely  ain't  goin'  to  s'port  no  Yankee's 
family  for  him.' ' 

"Well,   I  like  that;  as  if  I  want  takin'  up  the 


434  THE    BETRAYAL 

s'portin'.  But  then  I  did  'low  as  I'd  git  it  all  back 
agin  when  old  Rice  leaves  his  broad  acres  as  jines  on 
to  my  nice  little  piece  o'  prop'ty." 

Mrs.  Braxton  and  Mrs.  Daingerfield  sought  Miss 
Boiling  as  soon  as  they  had  told  their  husbands  of 
the  Dabney-Lancaster  engagement. 

"  Really,  Mary,  you  and  Sue  are  too  severe.  A 
girl  that  I  knew,  quite  as  wild  as  Gladys,  married 
one  of  our  clergymen,  and  after  she  had  been  mar 
ried  a  month  she  was  never  known  to  smile.  By  the 
time  that  her  husband  had  become  bishop  of  this 
diocese  many  persons  openly  said  that  she  was  quite 
as  serious  and  godly  as  her  husband,  and  that  was 
saying  a  great  deal.  Gladys  is  a  good  girl — quite  as 
good  as  you  should  expect." 

"  But,  my  dear  Miss  Polly,"  Mrs.  Braxton  said, 
"  is  Gary  Dabney,  a  young  man  of  splendid  ability, 
in  every  way  worthy  his  noble  name,  to  take  to  wife 
a  girl  whose  manners  are  scarcely  superior  to  those 
of  an  exceedingly  impertinent  kitchen  maid?" 

'  You  are  much  too  severe,  Mary.  Gladys  is  a 
child,  misled  by  her  married  sisters'  rich  parvenu 
friends,  but  her  heart  is  in  the  right  place.  You 
are  much  too  severe." 

"  But,  Miss  Polly,"  protested  Mrs.  Braxton,  "  the 
downfall  of  Virginia  will  soon  take  place  if  the  chil 
dren  of  such  men  as  Gary  Gordon  Dabney  are  to  be 
reared  by  vulgar  mothers.  Yes,  Captain  Lancaster 
married  a  peasant,  and  we  have  seen  the  fruits  of 
that  marriage;  and  more  than  once  we  have  seen 
the  children  of  the  marriage  of  a  gentleman  to  the 
daughter  of  a  gentleman  and  a  peasant,  and  we 
have  seen  the  destruction  of  some  of  our  best  fam- 


THE    BETRAYAL  435 

ilies  caused  by  marriages  between  aristocrats  and 
peasants.  Captain  Lancaster  is  what  he  is  because 
his  wife  was  what  she  was — and  what  she  is.  In 
deed  yes,  Gladys  is  quite  as  good  as  one  should 
expect." 

"And  to  think,  Miss  Polly,"  said  Mrs.  Dainger- 
field,  "  this — girl — is  to  be  the  mistress  of  the  home, 
of  the  governor  of  Virginia;  pert,  coarse,  mannish, 
utterly  impossible,  tolerated  by  us — barely  tolerated 
— only  because  she  is  a  Lancaster,  her  grandfather's 
granddaughter." 

"No  more  of  this,  Sue;  you  and  Mary  shall  not 
continue  in  this  unchristian  spirit.  But  how  true  it  is 
that  no  one  can  trace  his  gentle  blood  to  its  origin. 
Although  Napoleon  said,  '  I  am  an  ancestor;  you  are 
descendants,'  he  was  not  an  ancestor,  for  he  founded 
no  family  of  gentle  men  and  gentle  women.  No 
man  can  leave  any  class  below  the  grade  of  aristoc 
racy  and  take  a  permanent  place  in  any  higher  class. 
And  the  spark  of  gentility  is  indestructible.  It  may 
lie  dormant  for  generations,  then  burst  in  a  flood 
of  light,  as  it  did  in  Napoleon;  but  its  fire  is  un 
quenchable.  While  it  may  seem  to  have  burned  out 
with  Bonaparte,  it  will  flare  up  again  in  the  genera 
tions  that  are  to  come." 

"So  I  tell  Mr.  Daingerfield,  Miss  Polly;  and  I 
tell  him  also  that  when  a  great  man  seems  to  have 
sprung  from  the  people  that  one  should  search  his 
family  tree;  for  no  great  man  ever  inherited  his 
greatness  from  the  peasantry  or  the  yeomanry." 

"  Right  you  are,  Sue,"  said  her  sister.  "  Of  course 
Washington  and  Jefferson  and  Marshall  were  not 
great,  nor  were  Lincoln  and  Grant  and  the  other 
horrid  Yankees;  but  those  who  think  that  they  were 


436  THE    BETRAYAL 

should  point  out  to  us  other  Washingtons,  Jeffer- 
sons,  Marshalls,  Lincolns,  and  Grants  that  are  great. 
Their  progeny  died  with  them — or  returned  to  the 
peasantry  or  the  yeomanry  from  which  they  sprung." 

"  That  reminds  me  of  the  yeoman  Preston  family, 
girls,"  Miss  Boiling  said.  "  Mistress  Lititia  Floyd, 
daughter  of  Colonel  William  Preston,  granddaugh 
ter  of  John  Preston, — she  married  Governor  Floyd, 
— wrote  an  account  of  the  Preston  family,  which  I 
read  in  '43.  Colonel  James  Patton  had  four  sisters, 
said  Dame  Lititia,  the  youngest  of  whom,  Eliza 
beth,  while  crossing  the  Shannon  river,  had  as  a 
fellow  passenger  a  youth  of  striking  appearance,  who 
proved  to  be  a  ship-carpenter  named  Preston.  The 
girl  ran  away  with  the  young  man,  married  him,  and 
thus  placed  herself  out  of  the  pale  of  her  family. 
In  1735  the  young  persons  came  to  the  Valley. 
Mistress  Floyd  wrote  that  the  Patton  woman  was  a 
haughty  creature,  and  kept  aloof  from  the  Prestons. 
My,  girls,  now  how  important  are  the  Prestons  to 
Kentucky's  aristocracy  I  " 

"  And  the  idea,  Miss  Polly,  of  a  Patton  holding 
aloof  from  anybody!"  Mrs.  Daingerfield  exclaimed. 
"  However,  the  little  blue  blood  that  the  Pattons  had 
showed  itself  in  some  of  the  Prestons — but  not  in 
them  all.  Still,  in  all  the  Prestons  you  will  find 
Preston  blood  and  yeoman  ways." 

Mrs.  Braxton  now  returned  to  the  Dabney-Lan- 
caster  affair. 

"  In  this  mesalliance  I  see  a  greater  menace  to  Vir 
ginia  than  I  do  in  the  uprising  of  the  yeomanry  and 
peasantry  that  is  being  led  by  that  awful  Murphy. 
I  would  object  to  the  marriage  under  any  circum 
stances  ;  but  now,  while  the  lower  classes  threaten  to 


THE    BETRAYAL  437 

overwhelm  our  civilisation,  we  can  not  afford  to 
have  the  gentry  further  depleted  by  such  dreadful 
marriages.  The  wedding  must  not  take  place." 

"  I  did  not  mean,"  Miss  Boiling  said,  "  that  this 
alliance  meets  with  my  approval.  I  am  unable  to 
agree  with  the  fashionable  writers  of  to-day  who 
say  that  a  hardier  race  is  born  of  the  marriage  of 
the  gentry  with  the  peasantry.  The  tone  of  the  aris 
tocracy  is  lowered;  the  peasantry  is  not  raised  per 
manently  in  the  least.  The  son  of  a  lady  and  a  gen 
tleman  is  a  nobler  man  than  the  son  of  a  gentleman 
and  a  peasant.  The  highest  in  life  is  the  product 
of  the  highest.  Still,  you  are  much  too  severe.  I 
am  willing  to  admit  that  Gladys  is  shocking — at 
times  utterly  shocking.  But  Gary  will  teach  her  how 
to  behave  as  a  Lancaster  should,  not  after  a  fashion 
alike  unbecoming  the  lady  and  her  maid.  Oh,  dear ! 
oh,  dear!" 

The  day  after  the  bazaar  Lelia  Braxton  heard 
Miss  Boiling  say  that  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three 
dollars  and  thirty-four  cents  would  not  pay  the  pub 
lic  debt. 

•  •  •  •  • 

Hugh  White  and  Lucy  Christian  were  quietly 
married  in  the  musty  parlour  of  the  Christian  home 
a  few  days  after  the  bazaar  was  held,  the  Baptist 
preacher  officiating.  As  usual,  the  wedding-cake 
had  a  thimble,  a  ring,  and  a  coin  in  it;  but  where 
were  the  guests  to  explore  the  mysteries  of  that  cake 
—a  sturdy  young  yeoman  to  find  the  coin,  a  charming 
little  yeoman  girl  to  find  the  thimble,  and  a  buxom 
young  woman  to  find  the  ring,  the  bride  knowing 
just  where  each  prize  was  to  be  found,  and  seeing  to 


438  THE    BETRAYAL 

it  that  her  friends  cut  the  cake  in  the  right  place? 
Mrs.  White  was  the  only  guest  at  the  wedding. 
Neither  the  Christians  nor  the  Whites  would  toler 
ate  their  former  associates,  yeomen  like  the  Rices; 
and  such  yeomen  would  not  have  gone  to  the  wed 
ding  had  they  been  invited. 

The  gentry  never  attended  yeoman  weddings,  nor 
yeoman  .entertainments  of  any  kind,  and  never  en 
tered  a  yeoman  home  save  as  superiors. 

Colonel  Daingerfield  addressed  Judge  Braxton. 

"  Yesterday  the  voice  of  the  people  was  heard. 
That  voice  commanded  Shadrach  Berkeley  and 
James  Rice  to  make  the  laws  of  Virginia;  Page 
Carter  and  Francis  Daingerfield  were  ordered  to 
their  homes.  Samuel  Kelly  was  told  to  interpret  the 
laws  that  Berkeley  and  Rice  would  enact,  Ingram 
Braxton  was  required  to  descend  from  the  bench  of 
the  highest  tribunal  of  the  land.  John  Harrison, 
Murphy's  tool,  was  charged  with  the  execution  of 
the  laws  that  Berkeley  and  Rice  would  make  and 
that  Johnson  would  interpret;  Cary  Dabney  was 
told  that  he  could  not  veto  any  bill  that  would  re 
pudiate  the  obligations  of  his  country.  Two  men 
ran  for  Congress,  Temple  and  Jones;  the  greater 
rogue,  Temple,  has  been  ordered  to  Washington. 
The  voice  of  the  people  has  been  heard." 


CHAPTER   TEN 

SEVERAL  days  after  the  election,  when  the 
stars  had  come  out,  the  oxen  had  been  fed. 
the  corn  cakes  and  bacon  had  been  devoured, 
the  axe  had  been  sharpened  and  stuck  into  a  log  near 
the  oak  fire,  Mr.  Byrd  Dandridge  left  the  solitudes 
of  his  forest  primeval  and  sought  the  civilisation  of 
General  Dabney's  home.  No  fleet  steed  bore  the 
eager  lover,  as  Aurora  is  swiftly  borne  on  the  wings 
of  morning;  but  the  young  giant  walked  twelve  miles 
in  two  hours;  then  slowly,  hesitatingly,  he  appeared 
before  Her  Majesty. 

Miss  Dabney  took  a  chair  at  one  side  of  the 
hearth,  before  the  hickory  fire — the  first  of  the  sea 
son,  which  was  snapping  and  crackling  cheerily,  mu 
sically,  as  only  hickory  fires  snap  and  crackle — and 
Mr.  Dandridge  took  a  chair  at  the  other  side  of  the 
hearth. 

The  fire  continued  to  talk.  But  no  word  did  Mr. 
Dandridge  utter,  and  no  word  spoke  Miss  Dabney. 
For  a  long,  long  time  the  garrulous  fire  selfishly  mo 
nopolised  speech. 

"Your  father  and  brother  will  have  Miss  Lan 
caster  to  look  after  them — soon." 

Mr.  Dandridge  never  addressed  Miss  Dabney  by 
name.  He  never  thought  of  her  as  Miss  Dabney, 
he  could  not  think,  he  could  not  say,  Miss  Dabney. 
Betty?  He  did  not  dare  think  Betty.  Sometimes 
he  thought  of  her  and  she,  and  sometimes  he  ad 
dressed  her  as  you,  and  sometimes  she  became  pos- 

439 


440  THE    BETRAYAL 

sessive  your;  but  her  and  she  and  you  and  your  never 
became    Miss   Dabney,    Miss   Betty     Betty   dear — 

you  may  fill  in  countless  blanks, 

gentle  reader, — if  you  have  loved. 

Mr.  Dandridge  and  Miss  Dabney  intently  gazed 
at  their  loquacious  companion,  as  if  they  drank  in 
every  word  that  he  uttered,  until  the  tardy  wood 
man,  interrupting  the  saucy  fellow,  renewed  the 
attack. 

"  Soon  your  duty  will  not  be  to  your  father  and 
your  brother." 

Finding  his  auditors  to  be  uninteresting  conversa 
tionalists,  the  fire  entertainingly  discussed  the  weather 
with  his  friend,  the  wind  outside,  while  Mr.  Dan 
dridge  and  Miss  Dabney  listened  eagerly.  After  a 
while  the  lord  of  the  wilderness  uttered  another  sen 
tence. 

"  And  Miss  Lancaster  is  such  a  nice  girl." 

The  wind  laughed — the  fire  was  so  amusing.  Im 
patiently  Miss  Dabney  tapped  her  pretty  foot  on  the 
fender.  She  said  nothing. 

"  Now  you  can  marry  me." 

"  You  have  not  asked  me  to  marry  you." 

The  wind  laughed  again,  and  the  fire  chortled, 
entertained  by  his  own  wit. 

"  I  have  asked  you  a  thousand  times." 

"  And  a  thousand  times  I  have  answered.  No  one 
has  asked  me  to  marry  him  since  I  gave  you  my 
final  answer." 

"  I  love  you — I  love  you — marry  me — now — I 
love  you !  " 

11  Mr.  Dandridge!  You  have  no  home,  you  have 
no  money;  all  that  you  had  you  gave  away;  now  you 
ask  me  to  marry  you.  Mr.  Dandridge!" 


THE    BETRAYAL  441 

The  wind  and  fire  had  stopped  to  listen.  They 
laughed  quite  heartily,  then  resumed  their  conversa 
tion.  After  a  while  the  forester  interrupted  them. 

"  I  gave  all  my  property  and  all  my  money  to  the 
creditors — to  please  you." 

"Mr.  Dandridge!  I  thought  you  were  a  patriot. 
I  thought  that  you  gave  your  fortune  to  save  the 
honour  of  your  country.  Oh,  I  am  so  sorry;  so 
sorry;  so  sorry!  You  gave  away  your  fortune  to 
please  a  young  girl,  not  to  save  your  country  from 
disgrace ! " 

"  I  would  do  so  again." 

"  You  would?  Yes,  indeed  you  would!  And  then 
you  would  ask  me  to  marry  you,  knowing  that  you 
had  nothing,  that  you  could  not  marry.  A  capri 
cious  girl,  in  a  moment  of  excitement,  while  at  a 
meeting  of  a  ladies'  aid  society,  asks  you  to  give 
your  fortune  away.  You  do.  Then  you  ask  the 
girl  to  marry  you — knowing  that  you  are  without  a 
cent." 

Long  laughed  the  wind  at  the  sallies  of  the  fire; 
nor  could  the  fire  resist  an  impulse  to  join  in  the 
laughter. 

Miss  Dabney  looked  into  the  heart  of  the  fire; 
then  she  looked  at  her  feet;  then  she  looked  timidly 
at  her  lover,  and  all  the  while  her  face — ah,  she 
was  so  pretty!  Then  she  felt  ashamed.  That  she 
should  treat  him  so!  She  looked  at  the  fire;  she 
looked  at  her  feet;  she  looked  at  her  lover — fur 
tively  looked  at  him. 

Gradually,  mingling  with  confusion  and  blushes  and 
shame,  there  came  into  Betty  Dabney's  face  the  love 
that  is  seen  but  once  in  a  maiden — the  love  that  is  in 
surrender.  That  love  had  heard  the  call  of  the 


442  THE     BETRAYAL 

sweetheart,  the  call  of  the  wife,  the  call  of  the 
mother.  Unknowingly,  Betty  Dabney  had  heard 
each  call,  and  as  each  emotion  swept  to  and  fro  over 
her  face,  or  lingered  there,  each  vision  became  a  part 
of  Byrd  Dandridge  as  he  gazed  intently  upon  that 
fair  young  face,  a  living  part  of  him,  that  would  live 
in  him  so  long  as  he  should  live. 

The  wind  laughed  softly;  the  fire  burned  low, 
whispering  to  the  lovers,  as  they  sat  before  his  wan 
ing  lights — as  they  sat  apart,  silent,  and  afraid. 

No  touch  of  the  hand  should  profane  the  divinity 
of  this  young  man's  sovereign. 

"  I  have  only  a  log  cabin  in  a  forest." 

"  I  would  rather  live  in  a  log  cabin  than  in  a 
palace." 

"  I  gave  my  fortune  to  the  creditors !  " 

"  And  went  into  the  forest  to  work  for  me." 

"  I  have  no  money." 

"  One  does  not  need  money  in  a  forest." 

11 1  shall  work  all  day." 

"So  shall  I." 

"You!— you  work?     No." 

"  Yes,  I  shall  work — in  the  cabin — as  a  house 
wife — as — as  your  wife — work  for  our  home." 

"  I  had  not  thought  that  you  would  work." 

"  You  gave  your  home,  your  lands,  your  fortune 
because  you  loved  me.  Because  you  loved  me  you 
went  into  the  forest,  and  there  you  have  worked  like 
a  man — for  the  woman  you  love.  I  loved  you  be 
fore  you  gave  your  fortune  away;  I  loved  you  before 
you  went  into  the  forest ;  but  now — now — now — now 
I  love  you." 

"  I  deserve  no  praise.  The  old  home  is  gone,  the 
lands  are  gone,  the  money  is  gone,  I  no  longer  show 


THE    BETRAYAL  443 

men  how  to  work — I  work.  I  work  for  you.  Now 
— I  am  a  man.  I  deserve  no  praise." 

"  I  knew  you  were  a  man.  I  have  known  that 
since  I  was  a  little  girl;  but  I  longed  to  see  you 
work  for  me  with  your  hands.  I  was  a  proud  girl 
when  you  gave  away  your  fortune.  My  heart  fol 
lowed  you  into  the  forest.  The  music  of  your  axe 
reached  my  heart.  .  .  .  And  I  knew  that  you  did 
not  know  how  to  cook,  and  I  was  sure  that  you 
would  work  too  late.  I  longed  to  cook  for  you,  and 
to  call  you  at  sunset.  .  .  .  And  I  knew  you  could 
not — could  not — sew — even  a1 — a — a  button  on." 

"  Marry  met  now." 

"To-night?" 

"  To-morrow." 

"  I  will  marry  you  month  after  next." 

"No." 

"Next  month?" 

"No." 

'  Three  weeks  from  now — give  me  three  weeks, 
please? — please?" 

"No." 

"How  long  will  you  give  me?" 

"  Until  next  week — Wednesday." 

"  No — no — no — no — no'!  " 

But  the  fire,  dying  in  its  embers,  whispered  to  the 
wind  something  about  a  woman's  answer;  and  as 
Byrd  Dandridge  went  out  amid  the  stars,  to  enter 
upon  his  walk  of  twelve  miles,  the  wind  softly  mur 
mured  to  him:  'Yes,  yes,  yes;  Wednesday's  the 
day,  Wednesday's  the  day,  Wednesday's  the  day; 
Wednesday's  the  day,  the  day,  the  day;  the  day, 
the  day;  the  day,  the  day,  the  day,  the  day;  yes, 
Wednesday's  the  day,  the  day,  the  day." 


444  THE    BETRAYAL 

"  Gary,  did  you  ever  hear  of  such  a  thing  in  all 
your  life?  One  week;  only  one  week,  and  no  invi 
tations,  no  presents,  no  nothing.  I  never  heard  of 
such  a  thing! " 

"  I  would  like  our  wedding  to  be  simple;  no  pres 
ents,  no  one  present — except  our  relations  and  inti 
mate  friends.  Why  should  our  wedding  be  a  circus, 
held  in  a  public  place,  the  price  of  admittance  pay 
able  in  advance.  I  would  like  to  be  married  in  your 
father's  home." 

"You  are  wrong,  Gary;  very  wrong.  Invitations 
are  issued  to  every  one  that's  expected  to  give  a 
present,  even  where  the  chances  are  slim;  and  many, 
many  get  into  the  church — not  a  tent,  Gary;  but  a 
consecrated  church — that  do  not  give  even  a  teensy, 
tinesy  thin  little  sugar  spoon.  No  presents  indeed! 
A  home  wedding!  No,  sir,  Gary;  I  never  expect  to 
be  married  but  once,  and  I  don't  'spec'  to  have  no 
pretty  clothes  no  mo'.  No,  sir!  No,  siree!" 

"  Your  pleasure,  Gladys,  is  what  I  wish." 

"  No  home,  just  a  log  hut,  one  room  downstairs, 
half  a  room  upstairs.  Dirt  floor,  a  few  oak  leaves 
scattered  over  it;  no  clay  stuck  between  the  logs,  just 
leaves;  no  furniture,  not  even  a  chair,  just  a  bed 
stead  built  into  the  wall  out  of  saplings,  a  mattress 
that's  comfortable,  unbleached  cotton  sheets,  and  a 
cheap  horse  blanket  that  a  horse  would  be  ashamed 
to  wear.  You  see,  I  went  out  there  while  Byrd  was 
chopping  down  trees  'way  away, — I  could  just  hear 
his  axe  a-smitin'  and  a-smitin', — and  I  went  all  over 
the  hut — all  through  it — and  I  know,  I  do." 

"You  did  wrong." 

"You  are  so  jealous,  Gary.     I  didn't  think  you'd 


THE    BETRAYAL  445 

be  jealous  of  the  man  who's  about  to  marry  your 
sister.    You  just  make  my  life  miserable." 
"  You  do  not  understand." 

"  Not  a  horse,  not  a  mule — just  steers.    Chacun  a 
son  gout.     You  know,  Gary,  if  Byrd  drives  up  to 
Senlac  in  his  ox-cart,  ties  his  steers  up  to  a  tree,  stalks 
in,  stalks  out;  helps  Betty  into  the  cart;  unties  them 
steers,  then   drives  them  to  his  hut,   twelve  miles 
away,  I  for  one  shall  not  be  surprised.    Ugh !  " 
"  I  shall  help  Betty  into  the  cart." 
"  And  I  shall  sink  through  the  floor." 
"  Gladys,  were  I  a  plain  woodman  instead  of  a 
young  lawyer  with  an  increasing  practice,  would  you 
live  with  me  in  my  forest  home?" 
"Why,  Caryl  of  course  I  would!  " 

Indian  summer  and  Wednesday  went  to  the  wed 
ding  together;  Indian  summer,  warm,  yet  with  her 
brown  garment  of  leaves  fringed  with  frosts  of  win 
ter;  Indian  summer,  the  blue  of  the  sky  and  the 
brown  and  the  red  and  the  gold  and  the  green  of  the 
earth  all  about;  Indian  summer,  the  time  in  Vir 
ginia's  life  when  her  children  are  ready  to  marry. 

As  Morven  had  been  a  blaze  of  light  an  hour 
before  the  setting  of  the  sun  the  evening  of  Lelia 
Braxton's  birthday  ball,  so  Senlac  was  a  blaze  of 
light  an  hour  before  the  sun  set  over  the  blue  hills 
to  the  west  of  Warrenton  the  day  of  Betty  Dabney's 
wedding. 

The  guests,  all  of  whom  had  arrived,  were  assem 
bled  in  groups  on  the  verandah,  in  the  drawing-room, 
in  the  conservatory,  and  in  the  hall, — and  Mrs.  Brax- 
ton,  Mrs.  Daingerfield,  Miss  Braxton,  and  Miss 


446  THE    BETRAYAL 

Lancaster  were  in  the  bride's  room, — when  Mr.  Byrd 
Dandridge,  the  latter  part  of  the  hour  between  sun 
set  and  starlight,  passed  in  through  the  outer  gates 
of  Senlac,  driving  the  team  of  oxen,  which  were  la 
boriously  hauling  his  cord-wood  cart. 

Miss  Lancaster  was  watching  for  the  tardy  lover 
through  the  blinds  of  the  bride's  window.  She 
nearly  fainted,  as  she  explained  to  Mr.  Dabney  later, 
when  she  saw  "  them  steers."  All  she  could  do  was 
to  sink  to  the  floor,  bury  her  face  in  her  hands,  and 
sway  her  body  to  and  fro  in  the  shame  that  over 
came  her. 

Colonel  Daingerfield,  Mr.  Carter,  and  Captain 
Lancaster  were  on  the  verandah,  talking  in  low 
tones,  when  the  colonel  suddenly  gave  voice  to  his 
great  astonishment. 

"Do  my  eyes  deceive  me!  Mr.  Carter,  sir;  Cap 
tain  Lancaster;  do  I  see  the  heir  of  Sedgemoor  com 
ing  after  his  bride  in  the  ox-cart  of  a  peasant?" 

Captain  Lancaster  laughed;  right  heartily  did  he 
laugh;  he  laughed  and  laughed  and  laughed.  As 
only  a  soldier  of  fortune  can  laugh  did  Captain  Lan 
caster  laugh.  His  laughter  brought  all  the  guests 
to  the  front.  Then  the  good  captain  dried  his  eyes; 
and  then,  in  a  hesitating  voice,  he  explained  the  how 
and  the  why — the  reasons  as  they  seemed  to  him. 

"  I  met  Byrd  and  his  steers  and  cart  Saturday 
while  they  were  on  their  way  to  Warrenton.  '  Hello, 
Byrd,'  said  I,  'where  is  your  load?'  'I  am  after 
a  load,'  said  he.  'What  are  you  after?'  said  I. 
'  Corn  meal  and  bacon,'  said  he.  '  Going  to  feed 
your  wife  corn  meal  and  bacon? '  said  I.  '  No,'  said 
he.  'What  are  you  going  to  do  with  them?'  said 
I.  '  Feed  them  to  the  steers,'  said  he.  '  I  never 


THE    BETRAYAL  447 

heard  of  steers  eating  bacon,'  said  I.  Nothing  said 
he." 

"What  has  all  that  to  do  with  this  remarkable 
vision,  sir?  How  does  that  concern  the  laborious 
apparition  that  approaches?" 

"Hear  me  to  the  end,  Colonel,  as  Shakespeare 
said — or  as  he  might  have  said.  *  Byrd,'  said  I,  *  are 
you  going  on  a  wedding  tour?'  'Yes,'  said  he, 
'  Where  are  you  goin'  ?  '  said  I.  '  To  my  home  in 
the  forest,'  said  he.  '  I  will  lend  you  my  horse  and 
buggy,'  said  I.  *  No,'  said  he.  Then  he  said,  '  I 
thank  you ;  no.'  *  Byrd,'  said  I,  *  maybe  you  intend 
to  take  your  bride  to  your  forest  home  in  your  ox 
cart.'  '  I  do,'  said  he.  But  I  give  you  my  word 
he  hadn't  thought  of  doing  so  until  I  put  the  notion 
into  his  head.  Wait  a  minute,  Colonel,  wait  a  min 
ute;  I'll  soon  be  there!  'Get  in,'  said  he.  I  got  in 
an  ox-cart  for  the  first  time  in  my  life.  We  hadn't 
gone  far  along  the  road  before  we  met  General  Dab- 
ney  and  his  daughter,  who  were  walking  toward  the 
sunset.  '  Miss  Betty,'  said  I,  '  Lord  Lochinvar  here 
says  he  is  goin'  after  you  Wednesday  night  with 
these  oxen  and  this  cart.'  She  laughed.  *  I  hope 
he  will,'  she  said.  'Do  you  mean  that?'  said  Byrd. 
Then  she  looked  at  him — such  a  look;  but  that  is 
not  a  part  of  my  story.  '  Yes,  I  mean  that,'  said 
she.  I  never  thought  Byrd  would  take  the  matter 
seriously." 

"  My  children,"  said  Mr.  Carter,  "  I  never  expected 
to  live  to  see  the  day  when  a  Virginian  gentleman,  a 
Dandridge,  would  take  his  bride  to  his  home,  a 
cabin  in  the  wilderness,  in  a  cart  drawn  by  a  yoke 
of  oxen;  but,  my  children,  sad  as  I  feel  when  I  be 
hold  Virginia  come  to  such  a  pass,  I  am  filled  with 


joy  when  I  see  one  of  Virginia's  sons,  a  Dandridge, 
give  his  wealth  and  his  lands  to  his  country,  then  go 
into  the  forest  and  build  a  home  for  himself.  Then, 
almost  I  am  overcome  with  emotion  as  I  behold  one 
of  Virginia's  fairest  daughters,  a  Dabney,  put  aside 
the  luxuries  of  civilisation,  and  hand  in  hand  with 
her  forest  lord  go  into  the  wilderness — go  forth  with 
him  in  an  ox-cart.  There  the  dignity  of  poverty; 
there  the  wealth  of  the  world." 

Nor  was  there  a  guest  among  the  friends  and  re 
lations  assembled  that  did  not  glory  in  the  glory  of 
Byrd  Dandridge  and  Betty  Dabney;  nor  was  there 
a  young  man  or  a  young  girl  there  that  did  not  wish 
to  start  life  in  just  that  way — for  even  Miss  Lan 
caster  saw  the  romance  of  it  all. 

Mr.  Dandridge,  vigorously  belabouring  his  steers, 
shambled  up  to  the  entrance  of  the  verandah  before 
he  spoke  one  word  or  looked  up  at  the  assembled 
guests.  He  gave  his  team  into  the  safe-keeping  of 
a  servant,  then  imperturbably  shook  hands  with  all. 
No  one  reminded  him  that  he  was  late,  and  no  one 
referred  to  his  cart  and  steers;  but  no  other  bride 
groom,  it  is  safe  to  say,  ever  was  the  recipient  of 
a  greeting  more  hearty. 

Long  before  daybreak  Mr.  Dandridge  had  been 
ready  for  the  wedding;  but  he  was  afraid,  this  pow 
erful  young  man,  afraid  of  a  young  girl — and  afraid 
of  no  other  person  in  all  the  world. 

Mr.  Dandridge  had  left  his  cabin  in  the  wilder 
ness  in  ample  time  to  reach  Senlac  before  the  sun 
went  down.  But  he  had  been  obliged  to  water  his 
steers  many  times  and  oft  on  the  journey  of  twelve 
miles.  Then,  too,  they  had  needed  rest;  for  did 
they  not  have  to  take  her  back? 


THE    BETRAYAL 

No  hour  was  set  for  the  wedding,  but  every  one 
supposed  that  Dr.  Nelson,  dressed  in  the  robes  of 
his  office,  would  appear  in  the  doorway  leading  from 
the  drawing-room  to  the  library  at  eight  o'clock.  So 
he  did;  and  about  the  same  time  appeared  Betty 
Dabney,  on  the  arm  of  her  father,  Lelia  Braxton  in 
front  of  her.  Then  Mr.  Dandridge,  all  a-tremble, 
—my,  how  the  giant  did  tremble  before  the  young 
girl ! — took  his  place  by  her  side.  Then  the  guests, 
all  of  them  friends  or  relations  of  the  Dandridges 
and  the  Dabneys,  gathered  about  the  bride  and 
groom.  All  were  happy;  all  were  sad;  all  loved 
Byrd  Dandridge;  all  loved  Betty  Dabney. 

Where  sadness  is  mingled  with  gladness  both  are 
demonstrated  in  moderation.  A  wedding  in  Virginia 
among  the  gentry  was  not  made  an  occasion  of  riot 
ous  fun. 

The  bride,  the  bride,  the  bride !  Everybody  talked 
about  the  bride.  The  groom  in  Virginia  is  a  neces 
sary  piece  of  furniture  until  after  the  wedding; 
then  he  is  placed  in  a  corner,  and  none  so  poor  to 
do  him  reverence — not  even  his  mother.  Mr.  Dab 
ney  gave  way  before  the  cry:  the  bride,  the  bride, 
the  bride ! 

At  half-past  nine  all  the  rare  old  wine  had  been 
opened,  the  bride's  trunk  had  been  put  into  the  ox 
cart,  and  the  necks  of  the  oxen  had  been  fastened 
to  the  tongue  of  the  cart.  All  had  kissed  the  bride; 
all  had  shaken  hands  with  the  groom,  and  some  had 
kissed  him. 

The  young  giant  had  touched  his  bride  but  once, 
when  Dr.  Nelson  had  commanded  him  to  take  her 
hand.  Then  he  had  shivered.  Now  he  took  her 
by  one  hand,  while  Gary  Dabney  took  her  by  the 


450  THE    BETRAYAL 

other,   and  together  they  helped   her  into   the   ox 
cart. 

She  sat  on  the  trunk,  which  was  in  the  middle  of 
the  cart;  he  sat  on  the  tongue  behind  the  steers,  a 
cowhide  whip  in  his  hands,  and  together  they  made 
their  way — the  man  and  the  girl  and  the  oxen — 
along  the  road  that  led  into  the  forest.  No  one 
laughed  as  the  steers  hauled  them  off  with  unsteady 
gait;  but  more  than  one  cried — tears  that  were  of 
joy  as  well  as  of  sadness. 

The  bride  was  the  first  to  speak. 

"  How  far  have  we  gone,  Mr.  Dandridge?" 

"  Three  miles." 

"  I  thought  we  had  gone  farther." 

Along  shambled  the  oxen,  the  even  tenor  of  their 
way  unruffled  by  Mr.  Dandridge's  cowhide  whip, 
vigorously  applied  to  their  backs.  But  it  takes  more 
than  a  cowhide  whip  wielded  by  a  giant  seriously  to 
affect  the  gait  of  a  steer;  and  the  speed  of  two  steers 
doth  not  equal  that  of  one  steer. 

"How  far  have  we  gone,  Mr.  Dandridge?" 

"  Five  miles." 

The  moon  rose  over  the  black  low-lying  hills  to 
the  east.  A  pity,  thought  Mrs.  Dandridge;  she  dims 
the  stars. 

"  Are  you  very  uncomfortable,  sitting  there  on 
that  pole?" 

"No." 
'  There  is  room  for  you  on  the  trunk." 

"  I  am  not  uncomfortable." 

Never  was  there  such  a  night,  thought  the  bride; 
but — oh — those — steers — do — move — so — slowly. 

"How  far  have  we  gone — Mr.  Dandridge?" 


THE     BETRAYAL  451 

"Nine  miles." 

"Is  this  your  forest?" 

"Yes." 

"  Is  it  all  yours?" 

"No." 

Mrs.  Dandridge  looked  at  the  moon;  then  she 
counted  sixty-four  stars. 

"  Poor  steers !  Are  you  not  afraid  that  you  will 
really  hurt  them?" 

"  They  are  tough." 

The  trunk,  as  Mrs.  Dandridge  had  discovered, 
did  not  constitute  all  the  comforts  of  home. 

Mr.  Dandridge  stood  up  on  the  pole,  lambasted 
his  beasts,  then  sat  down. 

"  I  wish  we  had  a  great  deal  farther  to  go." 

"So  do  I." 

"How  far  away  is  home?" 

"Half-a-mile." 

"Oh!" 

Mrs.  Dandridge  had  meant  Senlac. 

"Ah,  what  a  dear  little  cabin,  what  a  dear  little 
home  you  have  built  for  me !  " 

Then  she  ran  in,  and  Byrd  Dandridge  went  to 
put  his  steers  to  bed. 

The  hickory  fire  was  burning  brightly,  for  it  had 
been  left  so  that  it  would  feed  itself — now  Byrd 
Dandridge  would  have  no  fire  save  one  of  hickory; 
the  window  was  open,  and  through  that  open  win 
dow  she  saw  that  he  would  not  be  done  with  his 
steers  for  several  minutes.  Hastily  she  undressed — 
ah,  so  hastily! — and  soon  she  was  seated  before  the 
fire,  in  a  wrapper  Lelia  Braxton  had  made  for  her, 
and  in  slippers  Gladys  Lancaster  had  crocheted  for 


452  THE     BETRAYAL 

her,  her  lingerie  on  one  of  the  rude  chairs,  covered 
by  her  dress.  And  there  she  sat — for  a  long  time. 
Then  she  examined  the  furniture.  Mr.  Dandridge 
had  passed  the  day  in  making  furniture  for  his 
bride.  Then  she  went  over  to  the  bed,  partly  pulled 
down  the  horse  blanket — that  never  a  horse  would 
wear — and  the  unbleached  sheet,  and  then  she  went 
back  to  the  fire.  And  there  she  sat. 

Mr.  Dandridge  long  ago  had  put  his  steers  to 
bed.  In  due  course — no,  that  is  not  exact  writing, 
gentle  reader — after  a  while  he  had  approached  his 
cabin,  and  through  the  open  window  he  saw  her  sit 
ting  before  the  fire,  one  of  her  pretty  feet  toying 
with  a  smouldering  log,  and — Mr.  Dandridge  went 
back  to  his  steers.  Again  he  drew  near.  Again  he 
saw  his  bride, — ah,  she  was  so  pretty !  her  face 
aglow,  for  she  sat  in  front  of  the  hickory  fire,— 
and  he  went  no  farther,  but  leaned  against  an  oak 
tree;  and  there  he  stood,  gazing  through  the  win 
dow,  all  a-tremble.  And  after  a  long  while  a  face, 
more  scarlet  than  the  fire,  which  now  was  low,  and 
which  had  left  its  flame  in  her  cheeks,  appeared  in 
that  open  window;  and  then  a  voice,  low  and  tremu 
lous,  was  heard  by  the  man  who  stood  leaning 
against  the  oak  tree. 

"  Come,  Byrd." 

Then  he  went  into  his  cabin  home. 


CHAPTER  ELEVEN 

JOHN  HARRISON  became  governor  of  Vir 
ginia  the  first  day  of  January.  The  same  day 
the  legislature  convened,  and  now,  the  middle 
of  February,  Richmond  was  crowded  with  visitors,  as 
she  had  been  since  the  inauguration.  Debtpayers 
from  every  county  in  the  state  had  gathered  in  the 
capital,  that  by  their  presence  and  counsel  they  might 
give  aid  and  comfort  to  the  gentlemen  who  had  been 
elected  to  the  General  Assembly,  of  whom  there  were 
only  a  few.  For  every  Debtpayer  in  the  city  there 
were  scores  of  Readjusters,  a  motley  throng — thieves 
of  every  kind,  thieves  black  and  thieves  white,  all 
eager  for  spoil.  Many  had  come  to  steal  office;  many 
had  come  to  steal  money;  many  had  come  to  steal 
social  honours;  all  wanted  they  knew  not  what.  All 
expected  wealth  and  fame,  either  or  both,  in  some 
form. 

Everywhere  there  was  gaiety.  The  gentleman 
looked  death  in  the  face,  smiling  as  he  clutched  his 
sword;  the  gentlewoman  saw  death  written  on  the 
faces  of  her  father,  her  brother,  her  lover,  and  gaily 
smiled  as  she  wiped  away  a  tear.  Virginia  would 
fall;  but  the  gentleman  and  the  gentlewoman  would 
fall  with  her,  fighting  for  her  honour,  and  dying  as 
Virginians  should  die.  The  base  born — the  negro, 
the  peasant,  the  yeoman — would  murder  Virginia, 
rise  on  her  prostrate  body,  then  soar  into  the  clouds. 
The  vultures  among  them  would  pick  her  bones; 
those  that  were  not  quite  so  ravenous  would  found 
a  dynasty, — they  knew  not  what,  they  cared  not 

453 


454  THE    BETRAYAL 

what,  hut  a  dynasty  in  which  they  would  be  lords, 
in  which  there  would  be  serfdom, — since  men  could 
not  be  lords  until  there  were  serfs.  Yeoman  and 
peasant  would  acquire  vast  estates;  their  children 
would  be  educated  at  the  public  expense;  a  royal 
road  would  lead  to  culture;  a  short  road  would 
lead  to  wealth. 

And  a  royal  road  indeed  was  the  road  to  wealth. 
For  seven  thousand  years  the  Chinese  empire  has 
conserved  her  natural  resources;  Europe  and  the  rest 
of  the  civilised  world  has  done  likewise  during  all 
recorded  time.  The  American  states,  obeying  the 
voice  of  the  people,  stripped  their  lands,  the  most 
fertile  in  the  world,  above  ground  and  below,  in 
one  hundred  years  of  riotous  living.  In  one  hun 
dred  years  the  peoples  of  the  American  nations  had 
eaten  their  children's  bread;  they  had  burned  their 
children's  fuel ;  they  never  even  left  trees  from  which 
paper  might  be  made  on  which  books  could  be 
printed  to  enlighten  their  children's  minds.  All  was 
devoured,  in  one  hundred  years,  in  an  attempt  to 
satisfy  the  insatiate  appetite  of  the  gluttonous  peo 
ples  of  Washington,  Jefferson,  Lincoln,  and  their 
kind.  To  what  end?  That  yeomen  and  peasants 
might  become  aristocrats. 

Under  a  government  "  of  the  people  by  the  people 
for  the  people  "  the  peoples  of  the  American  states, 
unlike  some  other  wild  beasts,  ravenously  devour 
their  own  young.  Superintendent  of  Public  Schools 
of  the  City  of  New  York  Maxwell  in  1910  reports 
officially  to  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  City  of- 
New  York  as  follows:  Physicians  employed  by 
the  Board  of  Health  examined  physically  323,344 
public  school  children  during  the  year  1909,  or 


THE     BETRAYAL  455 

about  one-half  of  the  total  number  of  children 
that  attended  the  public  schools  of  New  York 
City  during  that  year,  and  found  that  more  than 
three-fourths  of  those  examined  were  physically 
defective.  The  percentage  of  defective  public  school 
children  that  were  not  examined  is  assumed  to  be 
the  same.  Of  the  323,344  children  examined  the 
physicians  found  that  242,048  were  in  need  of 
medical  or  surgical  treatment,  although  probably 
not  more  than  one-tenth  of  those  children  were 
defectives  when  they  were  born.  Nearly  one-half 
of  the  pupils,  145,066,  were  lousy;  11,749  were 
suffering  from  starvation;  56,620  had  trachoma,  a 
communicable  disease,  and  3,850  were  afflicted  with 
such  contagious  diseases  as  diphtheria,  scarlet  fever, 
and  measles.  Evidently  Captain  Lancaster  was  right 
when  he  declared  that  lice  are  domiciled  in  the 
tresses  of  Liberty.  Where  went  the  food  that  should 
have  stayed  the  hunger  of  those  starving  pupils? 
What  became  of  the  time  of  the  parents  of  those 
filthy  children  that  should  have  been  devoted  to 
keeping  the  poor  little  creatures  clean?  The  "peo 
ple  "  of  the  city  of  New  York  fatten  on  the  bodies 
of  their  young. 

Virginia's  people  followed  Murphy  along  the 
royal  road  to  wealth,  squandering  their  children's 
wealth  as  they  went,  and  their  own  and  their  chil 
dren's  bodies  and  minds  and  morals. 

The  negro  would  be  permitted — to  imitate  the 
new  aristocracy.  Virginia?  Did  the  new  people  of 
Virginia  care  for  Virginia?  "To  hell  with  Vir 
ginia;  I  am  an  American!  "  That  was  the  cry  heard 
here,  there,  and  everywhere.  They  would  deliver 
Virginia  to  America,  first  bartering  with  Washing- 


456  THE    BETRAYAL 

ton  for  spoils.  America  could  have  Virginia;  but 
her  conquerors  would  have  their  price. 

In  commenting  on  colour  effects,  lights  and  shades, 
in  the  legislative  halls  when  the  members  thereof 
were  assembled,  a  gentleman  who  was  a  member  of 
the  Senate  looked  upon  his  colleagues.  Then,  ad 
dressing  them,  he  said:  "  The  negro  members  per 
haps  lend  a  darker  shade  to  the  opposition,  and  raise 
this  question:  Could  such  a  party  have  got  a  cer 
tificate  from  any  ante-bellum  court  that  would  have 
shown  that  half  of  them  were  white  men?"  There 
\vere  fourteen  negroes  in  the  General  Assembly,  se 
lected  by  men  that  were  white  and  by  men  that  were 
black  as  their  rulers,  chosen  by  native  Virginians  as 
masters  of  their  destinies. 

No,  gentle  reader;  do  not  decide  hastily  that  the 
voice  of  the  people  was  not  the  voice  of  God.  Men 
tally  and  intellectually  those  negroes  were  superior 
to  many  of  their  Readjuster  white  colleagues — at 
least,  they  offered  to  pay  more  than  twice  as  much 
of  the  public  debt  as  their  white  Repudiator  brethren 
were  willing  to  pay.  Ross  Hamilton,  a  negro  dele 
gate  from  Mecklenberg,  made  a  motion  to  substitute 
for  the  Riddleberger  measure  (which  provided  for 
the  repudiation  of  the  greater  part  of  the  public 
debt)  a  bill  that  provided  for  the  payment  of  the 
entire  principal  of  the  obligations  of  the  state,  the 
non-taxable  bonds  to  have  tax-receivable  coupons  for 
the  interest  attached  thereto,  the  interest  to  be  three 
per  cent.  The  bondholders  were  to  be  obliged  to 
content  themselves  with  only  half  the  six  per  cent 
interest  to  which  they  were  entitled.  They  were  to 
be  mistreated  in  no  other  way. 

Soon  after  the  legislature  convened  a  coalition  be- 


THE    BETRAYAL  457 

tween  the  negro  and  the  white  Repudiator  members 
thereof  was  effected.  Immediately,  those  members, 
acting  as  a  body  as  well  as  individually,  thrust  their 
knives  into  Virginia's  bleeding  side.  Mutilated  Con 
federate  soldiers  that  were  in  office  were  removed, 
and  Repudiators,  black  as  well  as  white,  were  elected 
in  their  stead.  A  miscegenation  bill,  which  per 
mitted  marriages  between  whites  and  blacks,  was 
introduced.  Every  man  that  was  a  Repudiator  was 
told  that  he  might  do  as  he  pleased.  Everywhere 
was  heard  the  cry,  "  Down  with  the  rich  man,  up 
with  the  poor  man  1 "  None  was  to  render  an  ac 
counting  to  God,  nor  to  Virginia,  nor  to  himself. 

Whatever  name  is  given  to  crime,  no  matter  how 
inoffensive  it  is  in  the  beginning,  it  soon  becomes  ob 
noxious  to  the  criminal  that  it  describes.  The  name 
Repudiator  became  offensive  to  Repudiators,  so  they 
called  themselves  Readjusters;  the  name  Readjuster 
became  offensive  to  Readjusters,  so  they  called  them 
selves  Eliminators;  the  name  Eliminator  became  of 
fensive  to  Eliminators,  so  in  time  they  called  them 
selves  Democrats.  All  the  while  honest  men  called 
them  thieves. 

Bills  were  drawn  by  the  Readjusters  that  provided 
for  the  elimination  of  private  and  public  debts  of 
every  description.  Virginia  was  exploited  by  Vir 
ginians.  Her  name  became  the  byword  of  thieves. 
The  regime  of  the  carpetbagger  was  put  to  shame: 
the  native  Virginian  pupil  had  excelled  his  master  in 
all  those  infamies  that  were  his  master's  virtues. 

While  the  nomination  of  registrar  of  the  land 
offices  was  pending,  John  M.  Brockenbrough,  of 
Essex,  was  nominated  by  Cannon,  a  Readjuster  sen 
ator.  Colonel  Randolph  Harrison,  who  had  lost  a 


458  THE    BETRAYAL 

leg  in  the  military  service  of  Virginia,  was  nomi 
nated  for  the  same  office  by  Senator  Hart,  a  Demo 
crat.  In  seconding  the  nomination  of  Brocken- 
brough,  Davis,  a  negro  senator,  made  a  speech  which 
your  narrators  will  report  in  nearly  the  same  lan 
guage  that  he  used. 

I's  hyard  de  Confed'rate  name  spouted  in  dese  halls 
mighty  of'n  since  I's  been  settin'  hyar,  connectin'  wid 
nominations,  an'  I's  tired  ob  dat  name.  Dis  Senate's 
got  a  duty  ter  Confed'rate  soldiers,  an'  dat  duty,  feller- 
cit'z's,  is  ter  'liminate  'em,  cayse  ter  the  victors  b'longs  de 
spiles.  I's  tired  hearin'  'bout  sympathisin'  as  we  gemmen 
ob  de  senate  owes  de  Confed'rate  soldier.  'Tain'  no  place 
fer  us  Senate  gemmen  ter  wipe  'way  dyah  tears.  He  ain' 
got  but  one  leg!  He  ain'  got  but  one  arm!  When  one- 
legged  an'  one-armed  Confed'rate  soldiers  sets  up  dis  hyar 
late  day  preyin'  an'  fastenin'  demseves  on  dese  hyar  vic 
tors  dats  titled  ter  dey  spiles,  dyah  ain'  no  dictionary  dat 
kin  tell  my  feelin's. 

I's  sayin'  I  don'  want  hyar  no  mo'  Confed'rate  talk  in 
dis  hyar  hall.  Confed'rate!  Confed'rate!  Confed'rate! 
One-legged,  one-armed,  Confed'rate!  I  ain'  got  no  sym 
pathisin'  fer  him.  Laks  my  bredren  ob  colour,  I  spurns 
him.  De  Funders  say  a  lot  ob  talk  'bout  er  one-legged 
man  fer  do'-keeper,  an'  I  say  he  ain't  got  no  mo'  right  den 
dis — 'liminate  him.  Ef  he  hadn'  fit  in  de  war  he'd  hab 
two  arms  an'  two  legs  dis  hyar  minute.  He  done  los'  my 
sympathisin'  when  he  went  in  de  wrong  party,  an'  right 
den  an'  dyah  he  los'  all  claim  on  de  people  ob  de  country. 
Dey  war  wrong;  so  let  dem  go  down  in  de  world,  whar 
dey  b'longs.  'Liminate  'em,  I  says;  'liminate  'em!  'Limi 
nate  everything,  I  says — 'ceptin'  'Liminators. 

The  white  Readjusters,  to  the  man,  concurred 
in  the  sentiments  expressed  by  their  swarthy  col- 


THE     BETRAYAL  459 

league.  Brockenbrough  received  76  votes.  Har 
rison  received  54  votes. 

When  the  election  of  chief  door-keeper  of  the 
House  was  in  order,  Mr.  James  A.  Frazier,  of  Rock- 
bridge,  a  white  Readjuster,  said  that  he  took  great 
pleasure  in  granting  the  request  of  his  coloured 
friends,  who  had  asked  him  to  nominate  a  man  of 
their  own  colour  for  that  position,  saying  that  he 
was  only  too  glad  to  serve  them.  Whereupon  he 
nominated  Cooke,  a  Norfolk  negro.  In  Frazier's 
nominating  speech  he  said  that  if  Cooke  would  only 
do  his  duty  to  the  House — and  he  was  sure  that  he 
would — as  his  people  had  done  their  duty  to  their 
party,  the  House  would  have  reason  to  accept  con 
gratulations.  True,  he  said,  Cooke  had  lost  no  leg 
nor  arm  in  the  Confederate  service;  but  no  doubt 
he  had  built  breastworks. 

The  Debtpayers  nominated  Sullivan,  who  for  ten 
years  had  been  the  efficient  door-keeper  of  the  House, 
and  they  appealed  to  the  delegates  not  to  turn  out  of 
office  this  tried  servant,  a  one-legged  former  Stone 
wall  Confederate  soldier,  and  elect  a  strapping  negro 
in  his  place  merely  because  the  old  man  believed 
that  the  commonwealth  should  try  to  pay  her  debt. 
Their  prayers  were  not  heard.  The  young  negro 
buck,  Cooke,  was  elected  chief  door-keeper. 

The  election  of  the  second  door-keeper  came  up 
in  the  House  the  same  day,  after  Cooke  was  elected. 
The  gallant  Cottrell,  a  Democrat,  whose  empty 
sleeve  was  a  token  of  his  devotion  to  Virginia,  was 
turned  out  of  office,  on  motion  of  a  negro  delegate. 
A  negro  took  his  place. 

General  William  H.  Payne,  in  a  speech  that  he 
made  in  Warrenton,  in  March,  1880,  said,  in  part: 


460  THE    BETRAYAL 

No  man  was  elected  to  a  judgeship  who  was  not  ex 
pected  to  use  the  patronage  of  his  office  to  build  up  the 
new  party;  and  from  such  applicants  for  positions  as  were 
doubtful  on  this  point,  they  exacted  pledges  to  that  effect, 
as  is  shown  by  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  of  Janu 
ary  13,  1880,  from  Mr.  Farr,  of  Fairfax,  to  Judge  Stew 
art,  of  Alexandria: 

"  In  the  discharge  of  your  functions  as  judge  on  all 
questions  you  will,  of  course,  be  untrammelled;  but  in  the 
distribution  of  the  patronage  controlled  by  you,  you  will  be 
expected  to  bestow  it  on  your  Readjuster  friends,  and  to 
give  them  preference,  unless  it  is  shown  that  they  are  un 
fit  and  unqualified  for  the  place.  These  concessions  are 
now  essential  to  your  success;  with  them  I  think  your 
claims  bright,  without  them  slim." 

Judge  Stewart  declined  the  judicial  position  coupled 
with  conditions,  and  was  promptly  superseded  by  A.  W. 
Chilton.  The  negro  voted  with  the  white  Readjusters 
upon  all  these  nominations,  and  his  reason  for  this  course 
will  be  found  in  an  extract  from  the  address  of  the  four 
teen  negro  legislators  to  men  of  their  own  race,  published 
in  their  particular  organ,  and  re-published  in  the  Whig, 
the  organ  of  white  Readjusters,  of  the  i8th  inst.,  which 
reads: 

"  When  it  is  found  out  that  by  our  action  the  whole 
machinery  of  the  State  has  been  changed,  officers  of  vari 
ous  departments,  judges  nearly  by  the  hundreds,  who 
were  placed  in  power  particularly  to  trample  upon  and 
beat  out  the  rights  of  the  negro ;  when  it  is  known  that 
these  things  have  been  done  and  men  elected,  pledged,  and 
in  many  instances  have  already  shown  that  they  intend  to 
give  the  negro  a  citizen's  rights;  when  all  this,  with  the 
change  of  public  opinion  that  is  being  accomplished,  is 
known  by  others  as  it  is  felt  and  appreciated  by  the  col 
oured  people  from  one  end  of  this  State  to  the  other,  we 
shall  not  fear  the  verdict." 

Now  what  are  the  rights  to  which  this  address  darkly 


THE    BETRAYAL  461 

hints?  As  disclosed  by  the  resolution  of  a  public  meeting 
of  negro  voters  in  Alexandria,  and  addressed  to  the  new 
and  liberal  party  in  the  legislature,  they  are  mixed  mar 
riages,  mixed  juries,  the  right  to  vote  without  paying  a 
head  tax,  and  so  forth. 

The  negro,  discovering  before  the  legislature  con 
vened  that  he  had  taken  an  adder  to  his  bosom, 
became  virtuous.  Instead  of  repudiating  the  debt 
of  forty-seven  millions,  he  first  advocated  its  pay 
ment,  then  the  payment  of  more  than  thirty-three 
millions  of  it,  while  many  of  his  white  Eliminator 
friends  were  in  favour  of  repudiating  the  debt  as  a 
whole.  A  few  white  Readjusters  advocated  the 
payment  of  amounts  that  varied  between  a  few 
dollars  and  nearly  twenty  million  dollars;  but  each 
white  Readjuster  as  he  suggested  the  payment  of 
any  part  of  the  debt  winked  his  eye,  slowly,  delib 
erately.  All  knew  that  he  had  his  reasons. 

Treat  us  fairly,  said  the  negroes,  or  you  will  not 
get  the  debt  repudiated.  Its  payment  will  not  come 
out  of  the  negro  anyway,  remember.  Treat  us 
fairly:  give  us  white  wives! 

Mr.  Dandridge,  a  Debtpayer,  of  Winchester, 
when  the  miscegenation  bill  was  under  discussion, 
said  that  it  had  been  whispered  about  the  Chamber 
that  the  negroes  were  to  have  miscegenation  in  ex 
change  for  their  votes  for  repudiation.  Undoubtedly 
the  Readjusters  promised  negroes  marriage  with 
whites  in  exchange  for  negro  support  of  bills  that 
had  been  offered,  and  that  were  to  be  offered,  by 
white  Readjusters.  But  they  never  kept  their  prom 
ise.  The  Riddleberger  measure  to  repudiate  more 
than  one-half  the  public  debt  was  passed  before  a 


462  THE     BETRAYAL 

vote  was  taken  on  the  miscegenation  bill.  The  negro 
had  been  used. 

When  the  miscegenation  bill  did  come  up,  Mr. 
Moffet  (Readjuster)  moved  its  dismissal.  A  negro 
(Paige,  of  Norfolk)  spoke  in  opposition  to  the 
motion,  saying  that  he  did  not  wish  to  be  offensive 
to  his  white  colleagues,  so  he  would  merely  say  that 
the  prejudices  of  whites  were  too  strong  as  yet  to 
favour  intermarriage,  that  those  prejudices  ere  long 
would  vanish,  that  he  wished  to  assure  his  colleagues 
that  as  yet  none  but  weak  negro  men  and  weak  and 
depraved  white  women  wished  to  marry  those  of 
the  opposite  race.  Paige,  no  doubt,  regarded  Fred 
erick  Douglass  as  a  weak  negro  man,  for  Douglass 
relieved  the  white  man  of  one  of  his  burdens. 

The  bill  was  dismissed  by  a  vote  of  seventy-one 
to  ten.  Every  white  man  and  two  negroes  voted 
to  dismiss  the  bill:  ten  negroes  voted  to  sustain  the 
measure. 

In  due  course  a  bill  to  repudiate  more  than  one- 
half  of  the  public  debt  was  introduced  by  H.  H. 
Riddleberger,  a  Readjuster,  of  Shenandoah,  who  was 
later  elected  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 
The  measure  was  entitled  "A  Bill  to  Reestablish 
the  Public  Credit."  The  title  of  that  bill  was  rep 
resentative  of  Repudiator  jocularity.  Why  pay  any 
part  of  the  debt? — is  it  not  just  as  easy  to  refuse 
to  pay  any  of  it  as  it  is  to  eliminate  merely  a  part? 
Those  were  questions  addressed  to  Riddleberger. 
That  statesman  slowly  winked  his  eye. 

Said  the  Reverend  and  Honourable  John  E.  Mas- 
sey,  in  his  Autobiography: 

When    Virginia    was    admitted    into    the    Union    on    the 


THE    BETRAYAL  463 

26th  day  of  January,  1870,  she  entered  it  as  an  entirely 
new  State.  She  was  not  the  same  in  her  territorial  lim 
its,  her  citizenship,  nor  her  organic  law  as  Virginia  of 
1 86 1.  Under  these  circumstances  I  cannot  believe  she 
was  under  any  legal  or  moral  obligation  to  pay  the  debt  of 
the  old  State,  or  ought  ever  to  have  assumed  it.  ... 
How  far  the  public  debts  of  one  generation  bind  the 
lands  or  property  of  the  succeeding  generation,  under  any 
circumstances,  is  a  question  worthy  of  serious  considera 
tion. 

Parson  Massey,  who  professed  to  be  the  father 
of  readjustment,  denied  that  he  was  a  repudiator,  a 
name  that  he  found  odious.  But  slowly  he  would 
wink  his  eye. 

The  Riddleberger  bill  contained  many  preambles, 
one  of  which  was  as  follows:  "Whereas. 
The  principal  of  the  debt  recognised  by  the  act  ap 
proved  March  30,  1871,  computed  to  the  first  of 
July  following,  and  taken  as  the  debt  of  the  State 
before  the  creation  of  West  Virginia,  was  $47,718,- 
112.23";  and  then  the  Repudiators  proceeded  to 
eliminate,  until  a  "  whereas "  was  reached  which 
said:  'The  equitable  adjustment  of  the  public 
debt  of  the  State  as  determined  by  the  application 
of  the  facts  and  principles  aforesaid,  fixed  the  aggre 
gate  thereof  at  $19,165,176."  That  bill,  which 
passed  the  legislature  by  a  large  majority,  was  sent 
to  the  governor  for  his  signature.  He  returned  it 
unsigned. 

The  next  legislature  passed  the  bill,  the  next  gov 
ernor  signed  it,  and  it  became  the  law  of  the  land. 

The  New  York  Tribune,  soon  after  the  bill  was 
returned,  reported  the  Readjusters  as  saying:  "  '  You 
refused  to  consent  to  repudiate  a  part  of  the  debt; 


464  THE    BETRAYAL 

we  will  go  to  work  now  and  wipe  out  the  whole.' 
They  say  they  will  go  to  the  people  next  year  with 
the  issue  of  total  repudiation,  and  will  win  it." 

One  of  the  Langhorne  tribe,  a  white  woman  named 
Orra  Langhorne,  petitioned  the  legislature  to  grant 
women  the  right  of  suffrage. 

Everybody  knew  that  anything  could  be  got  from 
the  legislature  for  the  price.  But  legislators  were 
unable  to  make  fraudulent  laws,  and  Eliminator 
judges  did  not  have  the  opportunity  to  construe 
Repudiator  enactments — except  those  laws  that  were 
passed  over  vetoes.  The  governor  was  honest. 

The  Readjusters  had  many  opportunities  to  in 
crease  their  personal  fortunes.  Bonds  of  the  com 
monwealth  that  amounted  to  nearly  fifty  million 
dollars,  with  coupons  aggregating  nearly  one  hun 
dred  and  twenty  millions,  receivable  at  and  after 
maturity  in  payment  of  all  taxes,  debts,  dues,  and 
moneys  payable  to  the  commonwealth,  were  kept  in 
wooden  boxes  in  the  office  of  treasurer  of  the  state, 
in  the  Capitol  building.  They  were  negotiable.  They 
could  be  eliminated  by  any  thief,  but  the  thief  could 
not  be  caught  by  the  aid  of  records  in  the  archives 
of  the  commonwealth.  There  were  no  records  of 
the  bonds  and  the  coupons  by  which  they  could  be 
identified.  The  plates  from  which  those  bonds  and 
coupons  had  been  printed  were  still  in  the  possession 
of  the  printers,  and  more  could  have  been  printed, 
and  uttered.  Maybe  they  were.  A  clerk  was  in 
dicted,  tried,  convicted,  and  sent  to  the  penitentiary 
for  stealing  some  of  those  bonds  and  coupons;  but 
no  prominent  Readjustee  suffered  like  punishment; 
yet  Repudiators  went  into  the  treasurer's  office  every 
day,  and  their  pockets  bulged  as  they  came  out. 


THE     BETRAYAL  465 

Those  bonds  and  coupons  were  stolen  by  Eliminators 
in  lots  of  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars'  worth,  as  was 
commonly  reported  throughout  Virginia  at  the  time. 

Gentle  reader,  your  narrators  have  told  you  that 
in  time  Democrats,  alias  Readjusters,  alias  Repudi- 
ators,  alias  Eliminators,  again  called  themselves 
Democrats. 

Claude  A.  Swanson,  while  governor  of  Virginia, 
made  a  speech  during  the  political  campaign  of 
the  fall  of  1909  in  which  he  advocated  the  election 
of  the  Democratic  candidate  for  governor,  a  person 
named  Mann,  the  Mann  that  was  elected  judge  by 
the  legislature  that  turned  out  of  office  Sullivan,  the 
one-legged  former  Confederate  veteran  door-keeper 
of  the  House,  and  elected  a  strapping  young  negro 
in  his  stead — Mann,  at  present  governor  of  Virginia. 

The  speech  was  printed  and  widely  circulated  as 
a  campaign  document  by  the  Democratic  party,  and 
was  printed  in  nearly  all  the  important  newspapers 
in  Virginia.  Your  narrators  will  quote  from  the 
document,  which  bears  the  following  title :  "  Re 
viewing  the  Record  of  the  Democratic  Party  of  Vir 
ginia  :  Speech  of  Governor  Claude  A.  Swanson  at 
Surry  Court  House,  September  19,  1909." 

The  Republican  candidate  for  governor,  in  his  opening 
address,  says  that  the  Democratic  party  has  been  in  control 
of  the  affairs  of  Virginia  for  the  last  twenty-five  years, 
and  he  vaguely  assails  the  record  made  within  that  time, 
demanding  a  change  for  that  reason.  The  Democratic 
party  gladly  accepts  the  challenge  thus  made  and  is  will 
ing  for  the  voters  of  this  State  to  pass  judgment  upon  it 
by  its  achievements  for  the  past  twenty-five  years.  It 
invites  a  most  rigid  comparison  of  this  long  record  with 


466  THE    BETRAYAL 

that  made  by  the  Republican  party  during  the  few  years 
it  had  control  of  this  State. 

One  is  disposed  to  regret  that  Mr.  Swanson  had 
so  much  to  say  in  praise  of  his  party,  now  named 
Democratic,  and  so  little  to  say  against  his  old  alias 
Repudiator  predecessor. 

Let  us  measure  the  record  of  the  Democratic  party  in 
this  State  by  this  final  test  and  see  whether  it  is  worthy 
of  the  people's  condemnation.  During  all  these  years 
of  power  in  Virginia,  there  has  been  but  one  small  de 
falcation  and  that  was  occasioned  by  the  forgeries  of  a 
clerk  in  the  Auditor's  office  by  the  name  of  Shepherd,  who, 
when  detected,  was  immediately  arrested  and  sent  to  the 
penitentiary.  No  effort  was  made  to  shield  him  or  to 
cover  up  the  fraud.  During  these  twenty-five  years  the 
Democratic  party  has  collected  and  distributed  about 
ninety  millions  of  dollars  of  public  money  and  this  is  the 
only  defalcation  that  the  severest  enemy  of  the  party  can 
point  to.  The  government  of  no  city  or  State  in  this 
Union  can  point  to  a  record  superior  to  this  one,  so  free 
from  scandal,  corruption  and  graft. 

What  a  contrast  do  these  long  years  of  purity  in  ad 
ministration  present  to  the  few  years  of  Republican  rule 
in  this  State.  During  these  few  years  -we  saw  public 
officials  shamelessly  abusing  their  power  and  using  their 
offices  for  self-enrichment.  We  saw  contracts  legally  en 
tered  into  cancelled  and  awarded  to  others  at  greater 
expense  to  the  state,  in  order  to  pay  for  political  campaign 
contributors.  We  saw  the  State  sustaining  heavy  losses 
of  public  money  by  deposits  made  in  insolvent  banks, 
which  were  extending  pecuniary  favours  to  those  in  power. 
We  saw  all  the  public  institutions  of  the  State  run  either 
for  the  pecuniary  benefit  or  political  advancement  of  those 
in  control.  We  witnessed  the  attempt  at  infamous  legis 
lation,  which  was  only  defeated  by  the  rebellion  of  four 


THE    BETRAYAL  467 

State  Senators,  which,  if  enacted,  would  have  created  in 
this  State  innumerable  offices,  not  to  be  elected  by  the 
people,  but  controlled  by  those  in  power,  and  which 
would  have  practically  put  the  entire  transportation  and 
business  interests  under  the  will  and  caprices  of  political 
partisans  and  plunderers.  We  saw  an  effort  made,  which 
was  only  defeated  in  a  similar  manner,  to  vacate  the 
circuit  judges  of  this  State  and  put  the  entire  judiciary 
under  partisan  and  political  control.  We  witnessed  offices 
held  and  administered  by  inefficient  and  impertinent  negroes. 
We  were  even  cursed  with  negro  school  officials.  We  saw 
the  finances  of  the  State  demoralised  and  disorganised  for 
political  purposes. 

And  now,  gentle  reader,  hold  your  breath  and 
listen,  or  you  may  not  be  able  to  tell  the  nature  of 
the  beast  that  is  covered  by  this  Democratic  ass's 
skin.  The  Democratic  ass  of  Virginia  has  grown 
during  the  last  past  quarter  of  a  century,  but  in 
stature  (as  measured  by  the  tape  corruption)  is  not 
yet  quite  so  large  as  his  Virginian  Republican  ele 
phant  messmate,  who  alone  devours  the  federal  office 
part  of  the  mess. 

My  fellow-citizens,  while  honesty  and  integrity  are 
indispensable,  yet  the  possession  of  these  alone  do  not 
entitle  either  an  individual  or  party  to  position  of  respon 
sibility  or  power.  These  splendid  traits  must  also  be 
accompanied  by  wisdom  and  ability.  It  is  only  a  union  of 
these  that  will  give  us  the  best  results  of  government. 
Thus,  though  the  Democratic  party  has  a  record  of 
twenty-five  years  of  unstained  honesty,  yet  if  it  has  not 
displayed  in  these  long  years  of  rule,  ability  and  wisdom 
in  the  administration  of  affairs,  it  is  not  entitled  to  a 
continuance  in  power. 

Let  us  first  determine  how  it  has  managed  the  finances 


468  THE    BETRAYAL 

of  this  State.  The  Republican  party  had  obtained  power 
under  a  promise  to  settle  the  State  debt  and  extricate  the 
State  from  financial  distress  and  disorder.  This  was  sought 
to  be  accomplished  by  the  enactment  of  the  Riddleberger 
Bill,  which  proved  a  failure.  The  Democratic  party 
appointed  a  commission  to  confer  with  the  creditors  and 
finally  reached  an  amicable  agreement  with  all  the  credi 
tors  of  Virginia.  This  settlement  made  by  the  Democratic 
party  is  far  more  favourable  to  the  State  than  the  Riddle 
berger  Act,  which  a  large  majority  of  the  creditors  refused 
to  accept. 

The  Second  Auditor  of  this  State  has  furnished  me  a 
comparative  statement  between  the  Riddleberger  Act  and 
the  Democratic  settlement.  This  statement  shows  that 
if  the  $9,289,067.17  funded  under  the  Riddleberger  Bill 
had  been  funded  under  the  Democratic  settlement,  the 
State  would  have  saved  $2,952,678.90.  This  statement 
further  shows  that  the  State  saved,  by  funding  the  residue 
of  the  public  debt  under  the  Democratic  settlement,  in 
stead  of  the  Republican  Riddleberger  Bill,  $7,339,095.00. 
Thus  the  Democratic  settlement  was  more  favourable  to 
the  State  than  the  Riddleberger  settlement  by  $10,291,- 
773-QO.  This  furnishes  a  splendid  testimonial  to  the 
character  and  capacity  of  the  Democratic  party  of  Vir 
ginia.  It  has  kept  its  promises  to  the  bondholders — the 
interest  upon  the  public  debt  has  been  promptly  paid. 
Not  only  has  the  interest  been  paid,  but  the  State  has 
purchased  and  either  cancelled  or  has  under  control  of 
its  Sinking  Fund  Commission,  $4,838,065  of  the  principal 
of  this  bonded  indebtedness. 

At  least  honest  Virginians  are  glad  to  be  told  that 
Repudiators  now  calling  themselves  Democrats,  hav 
ing  eliminated  more  than  ten  million  dollars  more  of 
the  debt  than  they  were  willing  to  eliminate  while 
they  called  themselves  Readjusters — or  Repudiators 


THE    BETRAYAL  469 

Eliminators — have  paid  the  interest  and  a 
part  of  the  principal  of  a  new  bonded  indebted 
ness.  And  what  a  huge  sum  has  been  paid  during 
the  twenty-five  years  of  "  honest "  Democratic  rule 
— nearly  five  million  dollars  I 

This  State's  debt  was  settled  with  the  concurrence  of 
the  creditors,  and  thus  Virginia  has  the  proud  distinction 
of  being  saved  from  the  stain  of  repudiation.  The  settle 
ment  has  been  so  beneficial  to  the  State  that  no  one  has 
been  bold  enough  to  antagonise  the  settlement  or  challenge 
the  wisdom  of  the  Democratic  party  in  making  it. 

Virginians,  is  this  man  Swanson  to  be  John  W. 
Daniel's  successor  in  the  United  States  Senate? 

And  Mann,  governor  of  Virginia  in  this  year  of 
our  Lord,  1910,  who  says  that  he  is  a  Democrat? 

Your  narrators  will  quote  from  two  letters  that 
Mann  wrote  to  General  William  Mahone,  photo 
graphs  of  which  were  printed  in  the  Richmond 
Evening  Journal,  July  12,  1909.  Says  that  news 
paper  of  that  date: 

The  first  letter  shows  that  Judge  Mann  was  consult 
ing  privately  with  the  Republican  boss  of  Nottoway 
county,  and  with  the  negro,  Archer  Scott,  Readjuster- 
Republican  member  of  the  legislature  from  Nottoway,  in 
the  interest  of  General  Mahone;  that  through  General 
Stith  Boiling,  at  present  Republican  postmaster  of  Peters 
burg,  Judge  Mann  knew  the  ambitious  plans  of  Gen 
eral  Mahone,  including  a  desire  and  purpose  to  go  to  the 
United  States  Senate;  and  that  Judge  Mann  cordially 
supported  this  ambition  and  assured  General  Mahone  that 
he  would  gladly  help  to  advance  the  cause. 

That  letter  in  full  is  as  follows: 


470  THE    BETRAYAL 

Nottoway  C.   H.,  Va.,   Nov.   28,    1879. 
General    William    Mahone: 

Dear  Sir, — I  intended  going  to  your  house  on  Thursday 
and  again  on  Friday  night,  but  on  each  occasion  had  com 
pany  and  was  so  deprived  of  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you 
during  my  short  stay  in  the  city.  I  did  see  and  have  a 
talk  with  General  Boiling,  and  know  something  of  your 
plans  from  him,  and  write  now  to  say  that  while  much 
preferring  that  you  should  be  our  Governor,  I  shall  never 
theless  rejoice  in  your  election  to  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States,  to  which  position  I  have  no  doubt  you  will  be 
speedily  chosen  by  the  legislature  about  to  assemble. 

I  talked  with  H.  H.  L.  Dyson  of  this  county,  and  Archer 
Scott,  our  representative  previous  to  the  election,  and 
found  them  most  favourably  inclined  to  you  personally. 
And  on  Thursday  morning  last  I  again  saw  Dyson,  who 
is  at  the  head  and  front  of  the  Republican  party  in  this 
county,  and  who  elected  both  Scott  and  Williams,  and 
he  thought  they  would  both  support  you.  This,  however, 
is  no  news,  because  Dyson  told  me  he  had  seen  you.  If 
I  can  be  of  any  service  to  you  in  this  section  it  will  be 
cheerfully  rendered. 

Most  respectfully  and  truly, 

W.  H.  MANN. 

The  day  that  the  Readjuster  legislature  elected 
Mann  the  newly  elected  jurist  effusively  thanked 
General  Mahone  for  his  efforts  in  his  behalf.  That 
letter  in  part  is  as  follows: 

Nottoway  Co.   Ho.,  Jan.  20,   1880. 
General   William    Mahone: 

Dear  Sir, — Please  accept  my  sincere  thanks  for  your 
kindness  during  the  recent  canvass  for  the  judgeship  of 
this  county.  With  no  political  claims  to  the  position,  I 


THE    BETRAYAL  471 

could  only  rely  on  your  personal  friendship.     And  on  that 
account   I   more   highly  appreciate   and  value  my   success. 

*  *  *  *  # 

With  best  wishes  for  your  future  happiness  and  success, 
to  which  I  shall  be  glad  to  contribute,  I  remain, 
Most  respectfully  and  truly  yours, 

W.  H.  MANN. 

Candidate  Mann  defended  his  Democratic  prin 
ciples  in  a  letter  that  he  sent  to  the  Virginian  news 
papers  a  few  days  after  his  letters  to  General  Ma- 
hone  were  published.  After  defending  the  Read- 
juster  moral  code,  he  said: 

General  Mahone  has  been  in  his  grave  fourteen  years. 
When,  after  a  stormy  career  in  war  and  peace,  he  was 
laid  to  rest  on  the  banks  of  the  Appomattox,  the  voice 
of  political  controversy  ceased,  the  aspersions  of  the  past 
were  forgotten,  and  the  generous  people  of  Virginia  re 
membered  only  his  valiant  service  to  them  on  countless 
fields  of  battle,  and  in  the  days  of  reconstruction,  when 
their  civilisation  was  imperilled. 

Now,  at  a  distance  of  thirty  years  from  the  event,  a 
political  candidate,  hard  pressed  for  means  by  which  to 
elevate  himself  to  office,  has  seen  fit  to  disturb  his  repose 
and  renew  above  his  grave  unseemly  strife  over  questions 
long  since  settled  and  forgotten. 

#  #  *  #  # 

The  efforts  of  my  adversaries  simply  proved  the  straits 
in  which  they  find  themselves,  and  their  frantic  and 
impotent  efforts  are  in  line  with  the  other  methods  re 
sorted  to  in  the  conduct  of  a  campaign  which  should  at 
least  be  in  accordance  with  the  proprieties. 

His  explanation  satisfied  many  more  than  half  the 
people  of  Virginia,  who  elected  him  governor. 


472  THE     BETRAYAL 

Democrats  offered  Democrats  their  choice:  a 
fool,  or  a — Mann.  Again  the  voice  of  the  people 
was  heard.  Maybe  that  voice  for  once  was  right. 

And  you,  England,  from  whose  womb  our  mother 
sprang,  shall  you  too  hear  the  voice  of  the  people? 

Aye,  in  this  year  of  grace  1910  England  hears 
that  voice.  Is  it  too  late,  O  my  mother?  Shall  you 
die?  Is  there  yet  time  in  which  to  save  your  life? 
O  my  brothers,  do  not  mistake  the  voice  of  the 
people  for  the  voice  of  God!  Come  to  our  mother's 
rescue — to  the  rescue  of  civilisation ! 

Already  your  literature  has  been  seized  by  your 
peasants. 

The  London  correspondent  of  The  Argonaut,  of 
San  Francisco,  one  of  the  few  great  magazines  of 
literary  criticism  published  in  North  America,  in 
Vol.  LXV,  No.  1704,  says: 

Gwendolen  therefore  does  her  hour's  piano  practice, 
perfunctorily  dusts  the  drawing-room,  and  then  sits  at 
the  feet  of  the  modern  novelist  and  is  convinced  that  the 
marriage  ceremony  is  really  of  no  importance,  that  it  has 
no  relation  to  virtue  or  its  opposite,  that  passion  is  the 
greatest  fact  in  life,  and  that  there  is  no  reason  why  those 
who  have  been  guilty  of  the  gravest  irregularities  should 
not,  after  all,  be  "  happy  ever  after."  Gwendolen  absorbs 
it  all  readily  enough.  Having  a  fair  amount  of  original 
sin  in  her  composition,  she  even  likes  it.  She  does  not 
know  that  the  pillars  of  church  and  state  are  reeling  as 
she  reads  and  that  she  is  directly  inviting  that  bugbear, 
Socialism,  to  her  chaste  bosom.  Such  books  are  being 
read  by  thousands  all  over  England  in  sedate  and  conven 
tional  homes  because  from  the  literary  point  of  view  they 
are  almost  the  only  novels  that  are  worth  reading. 


THE    BETRAYAL  473 

Four  such  books  lie  on  the  table  before  me,  and  their 
juxtaposition  is  a  matter  of  chance  and  not  of  design. 
They  arrived  within  a  few  days  of  each  other,  and  al 
though  their  style  is  as  wide  as  the  poles  apart  they  all 
seem  to  be  written  from  very  much  the  same  text.  Of 
course  H.  G.  Wells  comes  first,  and  as  an  author  he  is 
irresistible.  Every  one  reads  him,  rich  and  poor  alike, 
radical  and  conservative.  In  his  Ann  Veronica  he 
pictures  for  us  the  modern  young  girl,  restless,  inquisitive, 
hating  restraint  and  full  of  vague  ideas  of  freedom  and 
sex  equality.  Why,  she  asks  herself,  has  nature  given 
her  the  tendency  to  fall  in  love  if  that  tendency  is  to  be 
thwarted  or  checkmated  merely  because  the  object  of  her 
devotion  has  performed  a  certain  ceremony  in  the  presence 
of  a  parson  and  with  a  woman  who  has  now  left  him? 
Whence  does  that  ceremony  derive  its  power  to  keep 
lovers  apart  and  what  right  has  it  to  starve  her  love  in 
clinations  or  even  those  physical  functions  that  have  been 
carefully  unveiled  in  her  science  classes?  Ann  Veronica's 
apprenticeship  to  the  world  is  a  perpetual  and  staring 
Why?  And  no  answer  being  forthcoming,  the  restraints 
of  convention  having  apparently  nothing  to  say  for  them 
selves,  there  being  no  audible  voice  from  Sinai  or  pillars 
of  fire  or  of  cloud  to  guide  her  steps,  she  acts  as  though 
they  did  not  exist.  After  a  candid  conversation  with 
her  lover,  physiological  and  otherwise — and  Mr.  Wells 
does  admit  that  Ann  Veronica  blushed  once,  but  only 
once, — she  practically  asks  her  lover  if  she  may  live  with 
him,  and  as  she  is  a  particularly  pretty  girl  he  graciously 
says  that  she  may. 

So  peasants  tell  us  about  peasants.  The  other 
three  books  referred  to  are  Anne  Page,  by  Netta 
Syrett;  When  a  Woman  Woos,  by  Charles  Mar 
riott,  and  Germaine,  by  H.  G.  Rowland.  In  the 
closing  paragraph  the  correspondent  says :  "  We 
may  surely  ask  with  apprehension  what  these  things 


474  THE    BETRAYAL 

mean  and  if  the  conventional  gods  of  morality  have 
really  been  cast  to  the  ground  in  England  as  well 
as  the  gods  of  property  and  vested  interests." 

In  London,  The  Spectator,  No.  4247,  commenting 
on  Ann  Veronica,  says : 

Again,  we  should  not  dream  of  denouncing  a  book  as 
likely  to  poison  the  minds  of  men  and  women  merely 
because  it  was  coarse  in  language,  or  dealt  plainly,  or 
even  brutally,  with  the  facts  of  human  life.  Between 
such  books  and  a  book  like  Ann  Veronica  there  is  a  gulf 
deep  and  wide.  Ann  Veronica  has  not  a  coarse  word  in 
it,  nor  are  the  "  suggestive  "  passages  open  to  any  very  severe 
criticism.  The  loathing  and  indignation  which  the  book 
inspires  in  us  are  due  to  the  effect  it  is  likely  to  have  in 
undermining  that  sense  of  continence  and  self-control  in 
the  individual  which  is  essential  to  a  sound  and  healthy 
state.  The  book  is  based  on  the  negation  of  woman's 
purity  and  of  man's  good  faith  in  the  relations  of  sex.  It 
teaches,  in  effect,  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  woman's 
honour,  or  if  there  is,  it  is  only  to  be  a  bulwark  against  a 
weak  temptation.  When  the  temptation  is  strong  enough 
not  only  is  the  tempted  person  justified  in  yielding,  but 
such  yielding  becomes  not  merely  inevitable  but  something 
to  be  welcomed  and  glorified.  If  an  animal  yearning  for 
lust  is  only  sufficiently  absorbing,  it  is  to  be  obeyed.  Self- 
sacrifice  is  a  dream  and  self-restraint  a  delusion.  Such 
things  have  no  place  in  the  muddy  world  of  Mr.  Wells' 
imaginings.  His  is  a  community  of  scuffling  stoats  and 
ferrets,  unenlightened  by  a  ray  of  duty  or  abnegation. 

In  this  year  of  grace  1910  Maurice  Hewlett 
rushes  to  the  rescue  of  his  poor  oppressed  peasant 
brothers.  Your  narrators  quote  from  the  London 
correspondent  of  the  New  York  Times,  published  in 
the  New  York  Times  on  January  4,  1910: 


THE    BETRAYAL  475 

Maurice  Hewlett,  the  novelist,  has  entered  the  elec 
tion  fight  with  a  two-column  manifesto  addressed  to  the 
"  Workingmen  of  England,"  in  which,  describing  himself 
as  "  one  of  yourselves,  gaining  my  livelihood  by  the  work 
of  my  head  and  hands,"  he  reminds  the  workers  that  they 
form  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the  electorate  and  can 
gain  everything  they  want  by  two  strokes  of  the  pencil 
in  the  polling  booth. 

Mr.  Hewlett  proceeds  to  declare  that  he  belongs  to 
no  party,  but  intends  to  vote  for  a  Liberal  or  a  Labourite, 
because,  "  first,  'the  House  of  Lords  is  a  preposterous 
assembly  which  has  become  dangerous  to  the  State  and 
must  be  abolished  in  favour  of  an  elected  body;  second, 
because  tariff  reform  is  the  hopeless  policy  of  reaction, 
whose  advocacy  by  Conservatives  is  due  to  wishy  washy 
sentimentalism  and  vile  self-interest  in  equal  parts." 

Here  Mr.  Hewlett  declares  that  the  monstrous  expendi 
ture  for  armaments  has  been  maintained  .solely  in  trie  inter 
est  of  the  wealthy  classes,  "  but  for  whom,"  he  adds,  "  wars 
would  cease,"  and  strongly  denounces  the  attempt  to  stir 
up  strife  with  Germany. 

When  the  books  of  a  nation  are  written  by  peas 
ants  and  read  by  gentlemen  as  well  as  by  peasants 
that  nation  is  doomed. 

O  my  mother,  the  people  are  tearing  at  your  vitals 
even  now !  Look  upon  your  bleeding  daughter, 
then  take  out  your  rod,  the  sceptre  that  God  has 
given  to  you,  and  chastise  those  peasants  that  He 
has  placed  in  your  charge.  Your  responsibilities 
may  not  be  shirked. 

What,  Britons!  will  you  see  Britain  die?  Will 
you  see  her  institutions,  one  after  another,  fall  into 
the  hands  of  those  who  would  betray  her?  O  my 
brothers,  this  shall  not  be ! 


CHAPTER   TWELVE 

"  TAMES  P., — Senator  Rice,  I  means, — you  turn 
over  an'  you  keeps  your  eyes  open  till  I  gets 
+9  through  talkin'.  What  did  you  sell  your  sto' 
for,  I  want  to  know?  What  did  you  run  to  the  Sen 
ate  for,  I  want  to  know?  What  did  you  take  this 
mansion  in  Richmond  for,  right  in  fashionable  East 
Franklin  Street,  right  among  the  big-bugs,  I  want  to 
know?  Wake  up,  James  P., — Senator  Rice, — wake 
up,  an'  keep  your  eyes  wide  open!  You  done  them 
things  because  you  an'  me  an'  ourn  is  jest  as  good  as 
anybody  else,  an'  a  good  deal  better'n  them  frazzled 
aristocrats  as  ain't  got  no  mansions  no  mo',  jest  big- 
soundin'  names." 

"  For  Gawd's  sake,  woman,  shet  up !  I  want  to 
go  to  sleep.  Shet  up ! — I  ain't  hearn  nothin'  outen 
you  since  I  got  'lected  exceptin'  s'ciety.  I  don't 
make  no  heads  or  tails  outen  what  you're  after  no 
how." 

"  You  know  what  I'm  after  well  enough,  because 
we're  both  chasin'  the  same  ignus  factious,  as  Mrs. 
Tanner's  man  says;  an'  I  seen  as  how  you  is  chasin' 
after  that  thing  as  fast  as  me." 

"  Now,  maw,  you  certainly  is  gettin'  s'ciety— 
s'ciety  by  the  yard,  s'ciety  by  the  hank,  s'ciety 
by " 

"James  P., — Senator  Rice, — drop  the  sto'  outen 
your  conversation.  I  don't  want  no  sto'  ways  about 
you.  They  ain't  becomin'  a  senator." 

"You   had  a   stand   at  the  bazaar;  you  was   at 
476 


THE    BETRAYAL  477 

the  governor's  reception  come  inauguration  day,  all 
dressed  out  better'n  any  woman  there;  you  was  at 
the  the-a-tre  Friday  gone,  jeopardisin'  your  'mortal 
soul.  But  you  would  go,  'spite  of  what  I  said, 
'lowin'  as  you  was  a  'Piskelopian.  If  a  Baptist  goes 
to  the  the-a-tre,  he  goes  to  hell;  an'  seems  to  me 
as  how  a  'Piskelopian  is  made  outen  the  same  dirt 
as  a  Baptist — ef  they  ain't  as  clean,  washed  by  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb, — by  the  waters  of  baptism. 
You  gets  s'ciety  'nuff,  maw;  so  let  me  go  to  sleep." 
"  S'ciety,  indeed!  Bazaarin',  receptionin',.  the-a- 
tre-in' — them  ain't  no  s'ciety.  What  we  needs  is  to 
give  some  mighty  swell  social  functions, — that's  what 
Mrs.  Tanner  calls  them  things,  big  receptions  an' 
the  likes.  Then  we'll  get  asked  about  by  the  big- 
bugs — sech  folks  as  the  Braxtons — an'  the  Talia- 
ferros — an'  the  Beverleys — an'  the  Daingerfields. 
You  give  me  the  money,  James  P., — Senator  Rice,  I 
means, — an'  we'll  catch  that  ignus  factious  thing." 

The  Rice  "  social  function,"  which  was  held  the 
latter  part  of  February,  began  at  four  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon  and  lasted  until  long  after  midnight. 
Miss  Amanda  Burgess  and  Miss  Maiabelle  Berry 
came  over  from  Petersburg.  General  Murphy  gal 
lantly  escorted  them  to  the  Rice  mansion,  which  he 
entered  as  an  honoured  guest.  Dr.  Reginald  Laun- 
celot  (in  mood  now  gay,  now  sad)  brought  with 
him  his  bride,  formerly  Miss  La  Salle  Saunders. 
She  seemed  to  be  ten  years  older  than  she  was  the 
day  before  her  marriage.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stover 
were  among  the  Eliminators  in  Richmond  that  craved 
social  advancement.  No;  Mr.  Stover  had  sought 
money,  which  he  had  found,  and  Mrs.  Stover  had 


478  THE    BETRAYAL 

entered  Repudiator  society.  The  smith  and  his  am 
bitious  spouse  reached  the  East  Franklin  Street 
mansion  promptly  at  four. 

In  the  list  of  guests  that  was  published  in  the  Whig 
the  day  after  the  social  function  were  the  following 
names  of  real  persons:  Captain  James  Spotswood 
Temple,  Miss  Gladys  Lancaster,  Professor  George 
Washington  Lafayette  Simpson  and  Mrs.  Rice- 
Simpson,  Mr.  Roger  Williams  Stokes  and  Mrs. 
Rice-Stokes,  Honourable  Thomas  T.  Fletcher,  Mrs. 
Fletcher,  the  Misses  Fletcher,  Secretary  of  the  Com 
monwealth  Jerry  W.  Brown  and  Mrs.  Brown,  Judge 
Samuel  A.  Tanner,  Mrs.  Tanner,  Mr.  Samuel  A. 
Tanner,  Junior;  Professor  Josiah  Matthews  Dodd, 
and  Mr.  Justice-elect  Samuel  Kelly.  The  list,  which 
was  long,  contained  the  names  of  all  the  conspicuous 
Repudiator  statesmen  in  Richmond,  in  office  and  out, 
their  wives,  their  sons,  and  their  daughters.  Good 
Mrs.  Rice,  assisted  by  the  young  doctor  of  philoso 
phy,  prepared  the  list  for  publication.  Personally 
she  delivered  the  manuscript  thereof  to  the  society 
editor  of  the  Eliminator  newspaper. 

The  list  also  contained  many  fictitious  names, 
cleverly  combined  by  Mrs.  Rice  and  the  doctor,  a 
few  of  them  being  as  follows:  General  Tazewell 
Waller  Crump,  Mrs.  Crump,  Mr.  Pelham  Mason 
Crump,  Miss  Genevieve  Leonora  Crump,  Colonel 
Berkeley  Hunter  Fitzhugh  Moncure,  Mrs.  Mon- 
cure,  Miss  Gwendoline  Cholmondeley  Moncure,  Sir 
Arthur  Howard  Peyson,  Lady  Peyson,  Honourable 
Patricia  Peyson,  of  London,  England — friends  of 
Senator  and  Mrs.  Rice,  en  route  from  New  Orleans 
to  New  York. 

The  fictitious  names  were  scattered  through  the 


THE     BETRAYAL  479 

list  about  ten  names  apart.  The  names  of  real 
persons  began  with  that  of  the  man  believed  by 
Mrs.  Rice  to  be  of  the  greatest  social  importance, 
Captain  James  Spotswood  Temple,  and  ended  with 
that  of  the  man  that  Mrs.  Rice  thought  of  the  least 
social  consequence,  Mr.  Andy  Stover.  The  other 
names  of  real  persons  appeared  in  the  sequence  of 
their  social  worth.  Mrs.  Rice  did  not  wish  to  enter 
the  name  Stover  in  the  list;  but  Mr.  Rice  was  in 
sistent,  saying  that  he  liked  Richmond  well  enough, 
and  proposed  to  return  for  another  term.  A  states 
man,  he  said,  had  to  make  social  sacrifices.  Mrs. 
Rice  repeated  his  words  to  her  gossips  in  extenuation 
of  her  outrageous  social  behaviour. 

Captain  Temple  had  not  seen  Miss  Dorothea 
Annabel  since  the  night  of  the  bazaar.  She  had 
written  to  him  since,  and  he  could  have  read  be 
tween  the  lines — had  he  not  been  singularly  free 
from  guile  and  incapable  of  searching  for  a  hidden 
meaning — that  she  did  not  love  Mr.  Stokes,  that 
she  did  love  Temple.  The  letter  was  one  that  any 
modest  maiden  might  have  written.  Temple  had 
replied  briefly.  Ah,  why  could  he  not  see !  But  he 
had  not  seen.  In  effect  he  had  said  good-bye.  But 
Stokes  had  married  since  then.  Now  Temple  could 
marry  her.  To-night  he  would  ask  her  to  marry 
him,  she  felt  sure.  She  sang  off  and  on  throughout 
the  day — merry  college  songs.  Night  and  Temple? 
— would  they  never  come? 

How  should  she  reply  to  him?  Again  and  again 
she  mentally  rehearsed  the  scene  that  was  to  take 
place  between  them.  She  would  say,  "  Yes,  James, 
I  love  you."  Then  she  would  bury  her  face  on  his 


480  THE    BETRAYAL 

left  shoulder;  slowly  her  arm  would  steal  about  his 
neck,  and  soon  she  would  lift  her  face,  gradually, 
hesitatingly,  until  her  eyes  would  meet  his.  Then 
she  would  let  her  face  sink  slowly  back  upon  his  left 
shoulder,  and  in  passing  his  ear  she  would  faintly 
whisper,  "  I  love  you,  James,  I — I — I  love  you !  " 
And  what  a  wife  she  would  be  to  this  man!  Every 
minute  of  her  life  would  be  devoted  to  him;  she 
would  be  his  handmaid  as  well  as  his  wife;  she 
would  live  only  for  him  so  long  as  she  should  live. 

Not  until  nine  o'clock  did  the  scene  between  James 
Temple  and  Dorothea  Annabel  take  place.  It  might 
have  occurred  earlier. 

"  Have  you  seen  Eugenie  Victoria  and  her  hus 
band,  Captain  Temple?  Mr.  Stokes  seems  to  be 
just  too  happy  for  anything;  and  Eugenie  Victoria 
— never  was  there  a  bride  so  radiant!  " 

"  That  man  has  ruined  my  life." 

"Ruined  your  life?" 

"  Yes,  Dorothea  Annabel, — I  suppose  I  should  not 
call  you  Dorothea  Annabel  any  longer,  but  Miss 
Rice, — that  man  has  wrecked  my  life." 

"  I  do  not  understand!     Wrecked  your  life?" 

"Yes.  I  loved  you;  I  love  you  now;  I  thought 
you  loved  Mr.  Stokes;  I  was  sure  that  you  loved 
him.  My  heart  was  broken.  I  never  would  love 
again.  .  .  .  But  I  owed  a  duty  to  society. 
Then,  too,  for  the  remainder  of  my  life  I  did  not 
care.  .  .  .  Then  I  gave  my  life  to  a  woman.  I 
told  her  that  I  had  no  heart  to  give;  but  she  told 
me  that  she  loved  me;  that  she  would  take  my  heart 
as  it  was;  that  she  would  try  to  bring  happiness  into 
my  life.  And  I — I  did  not  care.  .  .  .  Now  you 


THE    BETRAYAL  481 

are  free;  now  I  am  bound;  now  my  heart  is  broken; 
now  my  life  is  wrecked!  " 

Her  bosom  heaved;  unconsciously  she  gasped;  she 
felt  faint;  she  clutched  the  back  of  a  chair  for  sup 
port  with  her  left  hand;  her  nails  were  sunk  deep 
into  the  flesh  of  her  right  hand;  for  more  than  a 
minute  she  was  unable  to  speak.  When  she  did  find 
her  voice  her  tones  did  not  seem  to  be  her  own. 

"  Lelia  Braxton — Lelia — Miss  Braxton — is  she 
the  woman?  " 

''Yes." 

James  Temple,  his  head  bowed  low  in  the  grief  of 
despair,  left  Dorothea  Annabel.  Soon  he  left  the 
house.  Dorothea  Annabel  stood  like  a  statue  for  ten 
minutes,  then  went  to  her  room. 

The  tragedy  of  Dorothea  Annabel  was  that  of 
the  girl  who  is  educated  beyond  her  class.  Thus 
thousands  of  young  girls  yearly  are  educated  in  Vir 
ginia — to  lead  lives  of  celibacy.  Dorothea  Annabel 
would  not  marry  a  Stokes;  a  Temple  would  not 
marry  a  Dorothea  Annabel. 

Let  us  lift  the  veil  of  time,  gentle  reader.  Doro 
thea  Annabel's  fate  was  embroidered  in  countless 
stitches — in  fancy  work.  Hers  a  lonely  life  in  the 
country;  by  a  fireside  in  winter,  out  on  the  verandah 
in  summer.  Hers  a  single  joy;  she  embroidered 
dainty  clothes  to  adorn  the  inferior  little  bodies  of 
two  generations  of  the  progeny  of  the  new  houses 
of  Saunders-Rice,  Rice-Simpson,  and  Rice-Stokes. 
The  time  came  when  she  had  none  of  the  education 
that  she  had  acquired  at  Mrs.  Stuart's  school,  and 
when  her  culture  was  no  greater  than  that  of  Mrs. 
Rice-Stokes,  and  not  nearly  so  great  as  that  of  Mrs. 
Rice-Simpson. 


Ah,  Dorothea  Annabel,  that  we  must  leave  you 
to  such  a  fate! 

And  Temple? 

He  never  married  a  gentlewoman.  No  Virginian 
gentlewoman  would  marry  him.  But  he  did  marry; 
and  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  times  did  he 
wish  that  he  had  married  Dorothea  Annabel,  his 
little  Dolly. 

He  had  called  to  see  Lelia  Braxton  a  few  days 
after  the  election.  William  had  met  him  at  the 
door;  and  slowly,  with  the  utmost  deliberation,  the 
old  butler  had  closed  the  door  in  his  face.  And 
William  had  lied  before  he  had  closed  the  door, 
for  he  had  said,  "  By  order  ob  de  young  Missus, 
suh!"  Captain  Temple  had  believed  that  lie  to  be 
truth,  for  William's  dignity  had  been  the  embodi 
ment  of  solemnity. 

Captain  Temple  never  became  governor  of  Vir 
ginia;  but  in  time  he  was  nominated  for  that  office 
by  his  Repudiator  friends.  He  served  one  term  in 
Congress.  He  never  became  president  of  the  United 
States;  but  he  took  pride  in  saying  that  he  was  the 
intimate  friend  of  presidents — one  of  whom  denied 
him  thrice.  After  a  while  he  left  Virginia. 

"  For  the  land's  sakes,  James  P., — Senator  Rice, 
I  means, — mix  them  gent'men  up  with  the  ladies, — 
no  lady  ain't  had  no  gent'man  talkin'  to  her  since 
the  social  function  begun.  They  jest  hangs  around 
the  smokin'-room  like  they  was  afraid  the  ladies 
would  bite  them." 

There  were  all  sorts  of  rooms  in  the  East  Frank 
lin  Street  mansion.  Among  them  were  the  smoking- 


THE    BETRAYAL  483 

room,  the  music-room,  my  lady's  dressing-room,  the 
statesman's  den,  Dorothea  Annabel's  boudoir,  the 
nursery.  Mr.  Rice  went  to  the  smoking-room,  but 
he  was  too  wise  a  man  to  suggest  that  the  gentle 
men  assembled  there  should  join  the  ladies.  He  did 
propose  another  round  of  drinks — a  proposal  that 
was  accepted  by  every  man  that  was  present  as  soon 
as  it  was  made,  except  the  senator-elect,  whom  Judge 
Tanner  addressed  as  he  sipped  his  long  old-fashioned 
toddy. 

"  Murphy,  what  think  you;  will  the  governor  veto 
Riddleberger'sbill?" 

"  I  think  not,  Judge  Tanner." 

"Come,  come,  Murphy;  you  know  better!  Har- 
rison'll  have  that  bill  jailed  befo'  ten  minutes  is 
gone  from  the  time  that  he  gets  hold  of  it." 

Mr.  Justice-elect  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Appeals 
Sam  Kelly  replied  to  the  Eastern  Shore  jurist. 

"  S'posin'  he  does,  Tanner,  Murphy'll  get  out  a 
writ  of  habeas  corpus,  an'  soon  that  bill  will  be  a 
law  quicker'n  you  kin  say  Jack  Robinson." 

'  You  gents  as  is  learned  in  the  law  ain't  makin' 
yourselves  plain  to  me,"  said  Professor  Dodd,  speak 
ing  as  if  he  knew  the  law — as  he  knew  everything 
else  on  earth  and  in  heaven. 

'  Then,  for  the  benefit  of  you  lay  gents,"  Mr. 
Justice-elect  Kelly  said,  "  I'll  say  as  how  my  1'arned 
friend  here,  Mr.  Justice  Tanner,  meant  as  how 
Harrison  would  veto  the  bill;  and  I  meant  as  how 
Murphy,  our  illustrious  leader,  would  bring  that  bill 
afo'  the  legislature  ag'in,  and  as  how  he'd  make  a 
law  outen  it  'spite  of  our  fool  governor." 

"  I  told  you  so,  Murphy,"  said  the  Eastern  Shore 
jurist;  "Temple's  the  man,  Temple's  the  man,  I 


484  THE    BETRAYAL 

said.    And  so  said  Timothy  Murphy;  but  John  Har 
rison's  got  the  job." 

The  orator  from  Salem,  now  secretary  of  the  com 
monwealth,  Mr.  Jerry  W.  Brown,  then  filed  an 
intervenor. 

"  Sirs,  the  governor  will  not  veto  that  measure — 
an  enactment  most  wise!  Why? — I  ask  you  why? 
Because  never  has  there  been  a  governor  of  Virginia 
who  did  not  expect  to  be  a  senator  of  the  United 
States.  Treason !  That  will  be  our  cry  when  trea 
son  is  committed  in  the  name  of  morality — 
the  John  Harrison  type  of  morality.  Odious  trea 
son  !  " 

Mr.  Stover  raised  his  heavy  head;  his  eyes  were 
wild;  he  gesticulated  violently. 

'Treason — treason — treason — treason!  I'll  cut 
off  the  head  o'  treason!  Cut  off  his  head,  I  says,  an' 
then  the  left-tenant  governor  he'll  sign  laws  er-comin' 
an'  er-goin',  tell  every  honest  man's  got  his  fill !  I'll 
cut  off  his  head — I'll  cut  off  his  head!  Kill  him! 
I'll  kill  him— kill  him— kill  him— kill  him !" 

When  he  had  taken  another  drink,  Mr.  Stover 
lapsed  into  the  silence  of  sleep — no;  Mr.  Stover's 
sleep  never  was  silent. 

After  a  painful  pause  in  the  discussion,  Mr. 
Fletcher,  who  had  read  the  mind  of  every  gentleman 
present  who  was  not  asleep,  thought  aloud. 

"  This  here  talk  don't  set  well  on  my  stomach. 
I've  heard  a  lot  about  'sas-sinatin'  the  governor; 
but  I  say  there  ain't  no  morals  in  passin'  laws  that 
way.  He  ain't  vetoed  the  Riddleberger  bill  noways. 
Give  him  a  chance,  says  I." 

"Kill  him— kill  him— kill  him— I'll  kill  him— 
I'll !» 


THE    BETRAYAL  485 

Again  Mr.  Stover  had  raised  his  sleepy  head. 
Again  he  took  a  drink. 

The  last  to  arrive,  Miss  Lancaster,  who  came 
alone,  had  not  been  expected.  Mrs.  Rice  trembled 
in  her  joy  as  she  saw  her.  More  than  one  of  her 
guests  trembled. 

"For  the  land's  sakes,  if  it  ain't  Miss  Lancaster! 
I  certainly  is  glad  to  see  you!  Miss  Maiabelle 
Berry,  shake  hands  with  Miss  Gladys  Lancaster." 

"Why,  Maiabelle!" 

"Why,  Gladys!" 

Miss  Berry  had  been  at  Mrs.  Stuart's  school  while 
Miss  Lancaster  was  there.  The  two  young  ladies 
had  not  met  since,  notwithstanding  Miss  Berry's 
visit  to  Warrenton,  although  they  had  been 
bosom  friends.  They  had  not  even  met  at  the 
bazaar;  yet  they  had  seen  each  other — and  had  not 
seen  each  other.  Arm  in  arm  they  retired  to  a  corner 
of  the  room,  where  they  could  talk  a  while  without 
interruption. 

"  Why,  you  dear  old  Maiabelle  !  My,  but  you  are 
good  for  hungry  eyes !  " 

"  And  you,  Gladys, — you  are  to  be  married  soon, 
I  hear!" 

"Yes,  indeed;  to  the  handsomest  man  in  all  Vir 
ginia.  Everybody  says  he's  the  catch  of  the  state." 

"  I  thought  Mr.  Taliaferro  was  thought  to  be  the 
most  desirable  young  man  in  the  state?" 

"  I  would  be  the  last  person  in  the  world  to  say 
one  word  against  Dick  Taliaferro,  as  everybody 
knows;  still,  there's  no  denying  that  he  has  serious 
— faults.  I  chose  Mr.  Dabney.  You  may  have  Mr. 
Taliaferro — if  you  want  him." 


486  THE    BETRAYAL 

"  I  do  not  wish  to  marry  yet." 

Miss  Maiabelle  was  a  wise  girl  for  one  of  her  age. 
She  did  not  expect  to  marry  soon  or  late. 

"  Maiabelle  Berry,  you  must  come  around  to  the 
Exchange  and  Ballard  to  see  my  trousseau.  Every 
thing's  just  too  pretty  for  anything!  And  my  pres 
ents?  I've  enough  already  to  make  the  old  Dabney 
home  look  new  inside.  But  where's  Dorothea  An 
nabel?" 

"She  has  a  headache;  so  she  went  to  her  room 
an  hour  ago." 

"  I'm  going  to  walk  myself  right  up  there  and 
comfort  her.  Poor  dear  Dorothea  Annabel !  I  feel 
so  sorry  for  her;  so  very,  very  sorry!  " 

"Why,  what  is  the  matter  with  her?" 

"  L' amour  et  la  fumee  ne  peuvent  se  cacher" 

With  that  Miss  Lancaster  made  her  way  to  Miss 
Rice's  room. 

•  •  •  *  • 

As  General  Timothy  Murphy  walked  toward  his 
home — his  room  over  the  saloon,  filled  with  the 
voice  of  the  people — he  thought  of  his  strange 
bedfellow,  Destiny.  As  he  thought  he  rendered 
an  accounting  to  himself.  He  knew  that  John 
Harrison  would  veto  the  Riddleberger  bill;  and 
also  he  knew  that  the  law  of  chance,  a  statute  that 
he  respected,  provided  that  the  legislature  would 
sustain  the  veto  by  several  votes.  He  could  count 
exactly  two-thirds  of  the  members  of  the  General 
Assembly  as  his  followers;  but  he  knew  that  some 
of  them  would  not  vote  for  the  measure  in  the  face 
of  the  governor's  opposition.  No,  said  the  statute 
relating  to  chance,  at  least  one  man  will  be  perverse. 

"  Suppose  all  my  followers  are  faithful  and  ready 


THE    BETRAYAL  487 

to  disobey  the  law  of  chance?"  the  general  asked 
himself.  "  Then  I  will  tell  one  of  my  boys  to  vote 
the  governor's  way."  Murphy  was  not  ready  to 
permit  Virginia  to  repudiate  her  debt.  He  had 
bought  her  bonds  in  batches  so  low  as  eight  cents  on 
the  dollar,  as  many  Repudiators  had  done,  and  he 
knew  how  to  make  those  bonds  salable  at  par,  or 
thereabout.  Nor  was  he  willing  even  to  effect  a  set 
tlement  of  the  debt.  That  a  debt  which  is  never 
settled  is  never  paid  is  beyond  dispute.  The  debt 
and  Murphy  would  die  together — and  Murphy  was 
not  ready  to  die.  Harrison  would  die  soon,  and  so 
would  Jones  and  Temple,  and  so  would  every  man 
that  opposed  Murphy.  But  he  would  live  a  while, 
and  while  alive  he  would  live. 

The  hero  of  the  Crater  believed  in  the  rule  of  as 
sassination — Timothy  Murphy  the  assassin.  He 
would  hold  the  office  of  senator  of  the  United  States, 
to  which  he  had  been  elected.  Already  Virginia's 
master,  he  would  beget  a  child  which  would  spring 
from  her  virgin  womb,  a  bastard,  and  then  he  would 
kill  the  mother  of  his  babe;  but  Murphy  would  be 
young  Virginia,  and  Murphy  would  live.  Aye,  al 
ready  the  babe  was  born;  already  Murphy  had  cut 
Virginia's  throat.  As  he  walked  toward  his  room 
he  thought  that  he  could  almost  hear  the  sound  of 
Virginia's  blood  as  it  trickled  out  of  her  body  and 
fell  to  the  ground. 

But  where?  asked  Murphy  of  himself,  where  are 
my  thirty  pieces  of  silver?  The  aristocracy?  Now 
he  was  the  aristocracy.  The  people?  He  despised 
the  people.  Yet,  the  voice  of  the  people  rang  in  his 
ears,  the  voice  of  the  people  was  in  his  nose.  He 
hated  the  people;  he  loathed  the  people;  still,  he 


488  THE    BETRAYAL 

could  hear  no  other  sound  than  their  voice.  Bah! 
He  knew,  as  he  had  known  all  along,  that  a  man's 
kingdom  is  himself.  Had  he  ruled  his  kingdom?  At 
least  he  had  killed  his  enemy;  he  had  killed  Vir 
ginia — he  and  his  associates  had  killed  Virginia, 
the  Virginia  who  had  told  him  that  he  should  not 
invade  her  kingdom. 

Conscience  did  not  trouble  Timothy  Murphy.  All 
along  he  had  known  how  the  battle  would  end. 
Great  man  that  he  was,  knowing  what  other  men 
had  tried  to  learn,  and  died  without  learning,  he 
knew  Timothy  Murphy;  and  again  he  thought  that 
he  knew  all  men  and  all  things.  And  he  did  know 
all  men  and  all  things  that  came  within  the  range 
of  his  vision.  Yes,  he  had  known:  Murphy  the 
peasant  could  not  become  Murphy  the  gentleman. 
But  he  would  fight,  although  he  would  lose;  as 
Daingerfield,  the  man  that  he  personally  admired 
above  all  other  men,  would  fight,  so  Murphy  would 
fight.  He  would  stand  by  and  watch  the  kingdom 
of  his  fancy  disintegrate — as  now  he  watched  Vir 
ginia's  bleeding  body — with  a  smile  on  his  face. 
Thus  he  would  die. 

He  could  hear  Daingerfield's  trumpet  sounding 
above  the  voice  of  the  people,  calling  to  Virginia's 
sons,  Come  to  your  mother's  rescue,  Virginians  yet 
unborn!  I  shall  die;  but  you,  men  and  women  that 
are  to  come  after  me,  fight  for  Virginia !  She  is  not 
dead,  she  sleepeth !  She  will  rise  again !  You,  men 
and  women  that  are  yet  unborn,  fight  for  her!  Fight 
for  your  country!  Again  she  will  take  her  place 
among  the  nations  of  the  world,  the  fairest,  the 
purest  of  them  all ! 

Would    Virginians    yet    unborn    hear    that    cry? 


Would  they  come  to  her  rescue?  Murphy  knew 
that  they  would  not.  Virginia,  the  mother,  he  knew 
was  dead.  Not  even  her  spirit  would  return  to  bless 
her  posterity;  but  her  progeny  would  rise  in  the  soul 
of  a  new  country,  the  United  States  of  America, 
the  vast  republic  that  soon  would  be  a  monarchy. 
Yet  Daingerfield's  voice  was  raised  above  the  bedlam 
of  the  people,  the  bedlam  that  was  an  incoherent 
uproar,  thundering  out  his  commands,  and  pro 
claiming  to  the  world  that  the  fight  had  just 
begun. 

But  oh,  that  stench  of  the  people !     It  rang  in  his 

nose. 

•  •  •  •  • 

A  few  days  after  the  election  the  Braxtons  went 
to  Richmond,  that  the  judge  might  enter  upon  his 
last  term  as  associate  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Appeals,  and  opened  their  winter  house  in  East 
Grace  Street. 

Colonel  Daingerfield  and  Mrs.  Daingerfield  were 
in  their  Richmond  home  in  East  Franklin  Street,  a 
few  blocks  from  the  Braxton  dwelling,  ten  days  be 
fore  Christmas.  The  old  warrior  would  have  no 
official  duties,  for  the  interests  of  his  former  constit 
uents  were  in  the  keeping  of  Mr.  Rice,  his  successor 
in  the  Senate;  but  he  would  fight,  and  the  Debtpay- 
ing  legislators  should  have  the  benefit  of  his  counsel. 
Having  decided  to  sell  his  Richmond  home  upon  the 
adjournment  of  the  legislature,  he  and  his  wife 
would  live  the  rest  of  their  days  in  Bannockburn, 
his  ancestral  home.  But  he  would  fight  for  Virginia 
so  long  as  life  was  left  to  him. 

Judge  Braxton  also  would  sell  his  Richmond  home, 
and  he  and  Mrs.  Braxton  would  live  quietly  at 


490  THE    BETRAYAL 

Morven  for  the  remainder  of  their  lives.  And  the 
judge  would  fight  for  Virginia  until  the  end  of  his 
days — and  study  Homer. 

The  venerable  physician,  Mr.  Carter,  had  taken 
his  medicine  case  filled  with  calomel  and  quinine, — 
and,  would  you  believe  it,  a  small  box  of  mustard! — 
and  had  gone  to  Richmond  with  the  Daingerfields. 
He  had  a  room  in  each  house,  Daingerfield's  and 
Braxton's,  and  never  knew  of  a  morning  whether 
he  would  sleep  in  East  Franklin  Street  or  in  East 
Grace  Street  that  night.  Gladys  Lancaster  used  to 
say  that  dear  old  Mr.  Carter  had  a  room  in  every 
house  in  Virginia.  She  was  wrong.  Every  house 
in  Virginia  was  Mr.  Carter's  home. 

As  General  Dabney  had  been  too  feeble  to  leave 
Warrenton,  Mr.  Dabney  spent  more  than  half  his 
time  there,  that  he  might  take  care  of  his  father. 
The  rest  of  his  time  he  spent  in  Richmond,  for  he 
wished  to  be  in  the  thick  of  the  fight  as  well  as  to 
be  near  Gladys  Lancaster.  That  young  lady  was 
staying  at  the  Exchange  and  Ballard  House  with 
her  father. 

Those  were  busy  days  for  Miss  Lancaster — and 
busier  days  for  Richmond's  dressmakers  to  the  fash 
ionable. 

The  good  angel  of  the  Governor's  Mansion,  Miss 
Boiling,  was  as  happy  as  she  could  be  as  the  mistress 
of  the  home  of  John  Harrison's  son — which  seldom 
was  visited  by  Readjusters  or  by  Debtpayers. 

Not  since  the  election  had  John  Harrison  seen 
Lelia  Braxton;  nor  had  he  written  to  her  since.  In 
a  burst  of  light  he  had  seen  Virginia's  way.  At  that 
moment  Timothy  Murphy  and  John  Jones  and  their 
kind  had  stood  naked  before  him.  What  could  he 


THE    BETRAYAL  491 

do  for  Virginia?  He  would  ask  her  creditors  for 
mercy;  they  should  make  their  own  terms;  but  he 
would  ask  for  the  mercy  of  delay.  The  debt  should 
be  paid  in  full,  if  he  could  bring  about  its  payment; 
but  he  would  ask  the  creditors  for  a  reasonable  time 
in  which  the  industries  of  the  state  might  be  devel 
oped.  In  any  event,  her  minerals  would  be  mined; 
her  negroes  would  be  forced  to  work;  peasants,  yeo 
men,  every  man  of  them,  would  be  made  to  do  his 
duty.  He  would  veto  every  bill  that  would  threaten 
Virginia's  honour;  and  for  four  years,  he  thought, 
no  new  measure  shall  become  a  law  to  Virginia's 
injury. 

He  determined  to  cause  bills  to  be  introduced  in 
the  legislature,  which  he  hoped  would  become  laws, 
and  which  would  induce  foreign  capitalists  to  invest 
their  money  in  Virginia;  and  if  the  laws  that  he 
would  propose  should  not  be  enacted,  at  least  he 
would  save  his  country  from  further  dishonour. 
Then,  having  helped  Virginia,  having  stood  between 
her  and  ruin,  even  death,  he  would  go  to  Lelia 
Braxton  and  say:  I  am  not  worthy;  still  I  have 
come  to  ask  you  to  be  my  wife,  for  Virginia's  way, 
which  is  God's  way,  which  is  your  way,  is  now  my 
way. 

And  Lelia  Braxton  had  understood  his  silence. 
She  had  known  that  John  Harrison  would  find  his 
way,  and — she  loved  him. 

One  morning  during  the  latter  part  of  February 
Colonel  Daingerfield  called  at  the  Braxton  home, 
as  he  had  done  every  morning  since  his  arrival  in 
Richmond,  and  found  Lelia  Braxton  alone  in  the 
drawing-room. 


492  THE     BETRAYAL 

"  Lelia,  my  child,  Mrs.  Daingerfield  and  I  are 
going  to  give  you  a  ball  next  week." 

"  Oh,  uncle,  thank  you,  thank  you,  thank  you !  I 
will  have  a  beautiful  gown  made  for  the  occasion. 
Good-bye;  I  am  going  to  tell  mother." 

Soon  all  Richmond  knew  that  the  Daingerfield 
ball  was  to  be  the  most  important  entertainment  of 
the  season.  Virginia  was  in  danger,  as  she  had 
never  been;  and  this  would  be  Virginia's  danger 
ball,  which  would  be  attended  by  the  gentry  of  all 
parts  of  the  commonwealth.  Judge  Braxton  had 
told  his  brother-in-law,  jokingly,  that  he  was  glad 
the  Morven  ball  had  taken  place  first. 

"  Sir,"  the  colonel  had  said,  "  a  ball  in  Virginia 
is  not  a  ball  unless  it  be  held  in  the  country.  The 
country  is  Virginia." 

The  colonel  made  preparations  on  a  gigantic 
scale.  The  capacity  of  the  commodious  East  Frank 
lin  Street  residence  would  be  taxed.  Each  one  of 
his  guests  would  be  able  to  read  his  or  her  title  to 
gentility  clear,  no  matter  how  long  the  list  of  an 
cestral  names.  The  colonel  believed  that  those  aris 
tocrats  that  had  sprung  from  the  womb  of  the  Revo 
lution  should  be  in  his  fields,  not  in  his  drawing- 
room.  You  would  think  so,  too,  gentle  reader,  were 
you  to  meet  some  of  the  members  of  that  aristoc 
racy,  the  Marshalls,  the  Prestons, — they  are  as  the 
sands  of  an  hourglass,  and  far  too  numerous  to  be 
mentioned  here. 

The  Riddleberger  bill  passed  the  House  and  Sen 
ate,  but  was  not  delivered  to  the  governor  until  half 
an  hour  before  midnight,  the  day  that  it  was  passed, 
while  he  was  at  the  ball,  as  presently  we  shall  see. 


THE    BETRAYAL 

Every  one  knew  that  the  bill  had  passed,  except 
the  governor;  but  no  one  knew  what  disposition  had 
been  made  of  it.  The  governor  will  veto  it! — the 
governor  will  sign  it ! — the  governor  will  permit  the 
bill  to  become  a  law  without  his  signature !  were 
exclamations  that  were  whispered  by  the  guests  to 
one  another;  but  nobody  referred  to  the  bill  in  the 
governor's  presence.  He  had  taken  his  veto,  the 
noblest  state  paper  ever  penned  by  a  governor  of 
Virginia,  in  his  pocket  with  him.  He  had  worn  it 
for  more  than  a  week. 

"As  we  are  to  be  married  day  after  to-morrow, 
Gladys,  I  think  that  you  should  not  have  come  to  the 
ball." 

"  You  are  ashamed — ashamed  to  marry  me !  " 

"No,  dear,  I  love  you;  I  love  you  even  while  I 
am  angry  with  you." 

"  You  are  angry  with  me  all  the  time." 

"I  love  you  all  the  time;  and  for  that  reason  I 
do  not  wish  you  to  be  the  subject  of  unkind  remarks. 
You  know  that  a  Virginian  girl  does  not  go  out  of 
her  home  (and  there  sees  only  her  closest  friends) 
during  the  week  or  ten  days  before  her  mar 
riage." 

"  See  here,  Gary  Gordon  Dabney,  old  Virginia  is 
dead:  Nous  avons  change  tout  qa;  peace  be  to  her 
ashes;  there's  a  young  Virginia,  who  is  going  to  be 
a  greater  Virginia  than  her  mother!" 

Miss  Lancaster  imitated  her  lover  as  she  con 
tinued. 

"A  nation  is  like  unto  a  man:  born  of  the  dust, 
in  barbarism,  unto  that  dust  she  shall  return  through 
barbarism — through  barbarism  brought  about  by 


494  THE    BETRAYAL 

vice!  Good,  good,  good!  That's  the  way  you'd 
say  it,  isn't  it,  Gary?  Your  very  voice;  your  very 
words;  this  foot  that  way,  this  arm  that  way;  coat 
buttoned  up  this  way,  hand  tucked  in  that  way!" 

"Virginia  is  immortal;  she  can  not  die;  but  she 
can  suffer,  and  there  are  those  that  would  betray 
her.  Vice  in  a  nation  is  like  dissipation  in  a  man. 
Old  age,  followed  by  death,  is  the  sum  of  their 
iniquities.  Never  shall  Virginia  be  a  part  of  the 
American  nation  while  I  live." 

'There's  no  Virginia,  Gary, — except  young  Vir 
ginia,  Murphy's  Virginia;  and  the  young  thing  is 
already  a  part  of  the  American  nation — the  coun 
try  that  was  founded  by  Marshall  and  nursed  by 
Lincoln,  as  you  say." 

She  was  serious.  Gladys  Lancaster  knew  how  to 
be  serious,  and  never  was  there  a  time  when  Gary 
Dabney  did  not  trust  her  vision  as  he  did  not  trust 
his  logic;  for  he  knew  that  the  philosophies  are  not 
to  be  found  in  books,  nor  acquired  through  study  of 
men.  The  divine  fire  of  genius  is  not  transferable 
from  one  mind  to  another. 

"  Now  I'm  going  over  to  ole  Miss  Boiling  to  talk 
to  her  about  my  clothes.  Won't  she  be  just  green- 
eyed?  She'll  sigh  fifty  times;  and  fifty  times  she'll 
look  in  John  Harrison's  direction.  Ma  fo'i,  how 
she  must  have  loved  that  old  Harrison  man !  " 

She  went,  and  she  talked;  and  a  bit  later  Miss 
Boiling  and  Mrs.  Braxton  and  Mrs.  Daingerfield, 
and  scores  of  ladies  besides,  talked,  as  Miss  Lan 
caster  had  known  they  would  talk. 

Had  Theodore  Roosevelt  been  a  girl,  how  like 
Gladys  Lancaster  he  would  have  been.  Your  par 
don,  Miss  Gladys! 


THE    BETRAYAL  495 

After  a  while  Miss  Lancaster  returned  to  her 
lover. 

"  Here's  a  letter  from  Bishop  Whittle,  Gary.  He 
says  all  right.  This  makes  one  bishop  and  six  plain 
ministers  that  will  be  in  the  chancel ;  the  governor'll 
be  the  best  man ;  a  special  correspondent  of  the  New 
York  Herald  says  he'll  be  there,  and  all  the  news 
paper  men  in  Richmond  are  just  dying  about  the 
greatest  wedding  they  ever  had  to  report.  I've 
helped  'em  write  descriptions  of  nine  dresses  already. 
And  jewellery?  Gary,  they  think  I'm  a  walking 
jewellery  shop ! " 

"  I  am  sorry,  Gladys." 

"  See  here,  Gary,  why  don't  you  marry  ole  Miss 
Polly  Boiling  after  all?  You  may,  for  all  I  care. 
You  treat  me  just  too  mean  for  anything.  I  believe 
I'd  cry  if  nobody  but  you  could  see  me.  Your  own 
sister  went  home  to  a  hut  in  a  forest  in  an  ox-cart. 
/  wouldn't  do  anything  as  conspicuous  as  that  for 
anything  on  earth !  Now  don't  you  cry,  please,  and 
I'll  marry  you  day  after  to-morrow.  Bye-bye, — you 
dear,  dear  old  bear!" 

As  John  Harrison  was  leaving  the  ballroom  alone, 
Mr.  Tazewell  having  claimed  the  attention  of  his 
partner,  one  of  the  Clarke  girls,  he  was  detained  by 
Mr.  Carter,  who  drew  him  aside. 

"  The  last  time  that  I  spoke  to  you,  my  son,  your 
conduct  had  aroused  me  to  great  indignation.  What 
I  said  to  you  then  you  richly  deserved,  and  I  take 
back  no  word  of  my  angry  utterances,  for  mine  was 
righteous  indignation;  but  now,  my  dear  boy,  all  the 
old  pride  that  I  felt  in  you  has  come  back  to  me, 
for  now  I  behold  in  you  a  man  worthy  to  be  John 


496  THE    BETRAYAL 

Harrison's  son.  I  thank  God  that  He  has  permitted 
me  to  live  to  see  the  day  that  John  Harrison's  boy 
is  the  pride  and  glory  of  his  country." 

As  he  wrung  the  old  physician's  hand,  the  young 
man's  voice  was  thick  with  emotion. 

The  orchestra  was  playing  "  Den  Carry  Me  Back 
to  Ole  Virginny "  as  a  gallop ;  everywhere  was 
gaiety — and  suppressed  tears. 

Almost  John  Harrison  felt  overcome  with  shame 
as  he  looked  into  the  kindly  eyes  of  his  aged  god 
father. 

"  I  made  a  mistake — one  that  made  me  unworthy 
of  the  name  that  I  bear.  My  mistake  was  a  crime 
— one  that  you  have  forgiven,  sir,  but  which  I  shall 
never  forgive.  Mr.  Carter,  the  remainder  of  my 
life  shall  be  given  to  Virginia,  in  atonement;  but  my 
crime  will  follow  me  to  my  grave,  as  it  should. 
Never  for  a  minute  shall  I  be  free  from  remorse, 
nor  from  shame — punishments  that  I  richly  de 
serve." 

"  My  boy,  another  punishment  awaits  you,  and 
the  wife  that  you  are  to  take  to  your  bosom,  and 
the  children  that  are  to  be  born  to  you — the  chil 
dren  of  my  John  and  my  Lelia.  You  may  give  your 
life  to  Virginia,  and  in  giving  your  life  you  may  save 
hers;  but  always  there  will  be  doubt  in  the  minds  of 
honest  men,  your  friends  as  well  as  your  enemies,  as 
to  your  honesty.  Lelia  Braxton  will  be  the  wife  of 
a  man  whose  title  to  honour  is  not  clear.  The  play 
mates  of  a  new  generation  of  Harrisons  will  say  to 
your  children,  Your  father  was  a  Repudiator. 

"  The  man  that  violates  a  moral  law  is  punished 
as  surely  as  he  that  violates  a  physical  law.  The 


THE    BETRAYAL  497 

wage  of  sin  is  death.  Is  a  mistake  a  sin?  Is  a  man 
always  to  know  right  from  wrong?  Is  the  man  that 
errs  to  be  punished  when  his  error  was  due  to  his 
inability  to  know  right?  My  answer  to  those  ques 
tions  is  this :  mistakes  are  punished  as  sins ;  and  pun 
ishment  is  inevitable.  All  men  make  mistakes,  my 
child;  but  no  man  should  be  overcome  by  remorse, 
or  shame,  because  of  his  sins.  Rather  he  should  use 
them  as  guides,  praying  to  Almighty  God  that  He 
in  His  mercy  will  enable  him  to  avoid  the  errors 
that  he  has  made,  that  He  will  lead  him  to  a  higher 
kingdom." 

"  I  have  no  right  to  ask  Lelia  to  be  my  wife. 
She  loves  me,  I  know,  but  I  should  not  permit  her 
to  sacrifice  her  life." 

"  There  you  are  wrong,  my  son.  There  is  no  sac 
rifice  in  love.  Lelia  loves  you.  Her  duty  is  to  her 
love.  Together  you  must  go  hand  in  hand  through 
life,  and  in  the  love  that  you  bear  each  other  and 
your  children  you  will  find  all  that  life  has  to  give 
to  any  man  or  to  any  woman." 

As  the  last  strains  of  a  waltz  died  away  a  group 
consisting  of  Colonel  Daingerfield,  a  few  of  the 
Misses  Clarke,  Mr.  Tazewell,  and  Captain  Lan 
caster  gathered  about  a  cluster  of  palms  that  deco 
rated  the  broad  hall.  Captain  Lancaster  addressed 
his  host,  asking  the  question  that  was  on  many  lips. 

"  Do  you  think  Harrison  will  veto  the  Riddle- 
berger  bill?" 

"Sir,  Mr.  Harrison  is  my  guest;  that,  sir,  I  be 
lieve,  answers  your  question.  Miss  Clarke,  ma'am, 
the  roses  in  your  cheeks  remind  me  of  Bannock- 


498  THE    BETRAYAL 

burn  in  the  springtime;  also,  ma'am,  they  remind 
me  of  another  Clarke — that  sweet  singer  who  made 
fair  Dawn  blush  in  her  shame." 

Four  of  the  Berkeley  gentlemen  were  the  accepted 
lovers  of  four  of  the  Clarke  ladies,  and  the  engage 
ment  of  Mr.  Tazewell  to  the  fifth  was  in  sight. 

The  irrepressible  hero  of  Balaklava  again  ad 
dressed  the  warrior  of  Bannockburn. 

'  The  governor  vetoed  the  penitentiary  bill  yes 
terday." 

'Yes,  sir;  he  did;  a  bill  that  provided  that  the 
management  of  the  penitentiary  should  be  turned 
over  to  a  gang  that  should  be  its  inmates.  The 
grounds  upon  which  he  based  his  veto  were  unan 
swerable;  but,  sir,  I  regret  that  he  did  not  find  it 
within  the  range  of  his  conception  of  duty  to  say 
that  he  vetoed  that  measure  because  the  penitentiary 
was  made  to  keep  thieves,  not  thieves  to  keep  the 
penitentiary,  as  Mr.  Royall  says.  I  always  knew 
that  John  Harrison  was  a  man  of  the  highest  sense 
of  honour." 

"  Why,  Colonel,  aren't  you  ashamed  of  your 
self!" 

Miss  Lancaster  had  joined  the  group.  The  col 
onel  adjusted  his  glasses,  then  glared  at  her  over 
them. 

"  Madam,  gentlemen  in  the  heat  of  political  dis 
cussions  frequently  are  borne  to  great  heights  upon 
the  wings  of  oratory.  No  one,  madam,  holds  a 
gentleman  accountable  for  the  passionate  language 
that  he  used  in  a  campaign — after  the  smoke  of 
battle  has  blown  away.  I  repeat:  always  I  have  be 
lieved  John  Harrison  to  be  a  man  worthy  of  Vir 
ginia's  best  tradition." 


THE    BETRAYAL  499 

The  orchestra  again  played  Virginia's  national 
anthem.  As  the  stirring  music  was  heard  the  young 
people  flocked  into  the  ballroom,  where  they  took 
their  places  for  the  Virginia  reel.  None  save  Vir 
ginian  music  was  played  that  night,  and  no  dance 
other  than  a  Virginian  dance  was  danced  that  night. 

"  I  need  not  ask  you,  Miss  Braxton,  I  am  sure." 

"No,  Mr.  Taliaferro,  you  know  the  answer." 

"  He  will  veto  the  bill." 

"Yes." 

"  And  John  Harrison  will  have  done  more  for 
Virginia  than  any  other  man  of  his  period  the  day 
that  he  retires  to  private  life." 

"Yes." 

"  But  he  will  never  sheathe  his  sword.  He  will 
always  fight  for  his  country.  Virginia  will  die;  but 
he  will  take  care  of  her  grave  so  long  as  he  lives. 
He  has  made  a  mistake,  but  Virginia  would  live  if 
there  were  many  Virginians  like  John  Harrison. 
.  .  .  Do  you  know,  Miss  Braxton,  for  several 
months  I  have  been  working  on  a  portrait  bust  of 
him.  I  have  tried  to  put  into  cold  marble  some  of 
his  nobility  that  you  and  I — and  others — see.  Some 
day  I  shall  ask  you  and  John  Harrison  to  accept  that 
sculpture,  the  work  of  one  who  knows  that  John 
Harrison  is  a  man  that  is  a  man — and  that  is  the 
only  kind  of  man  that  I  care  to  render  into  marble." 

"  I  thank  you." 

With  those  words  Lelia  Braxton's  form  drooped 
somewhat,  as  she  stood  under  one  of  the  palms, 
which  helped  to  make  a  den  of  a  corner  of  the 
drawing-room,  her  face  averted,  in  which  were  min 
gled  pride  and  pain  and  a  maiden's  conscious  shame. 


500  THE    BETRAYAL 

"A  message  for  the  governor! — an  urgent  mes 
sage  for  the  governor !  " 

A  messenger  from  the  Senate,  who  had  been  ad 
mitted  to  the  hall,  shouted  these  words  in  typical 
Readjuster  dramatic  way.  He  was  conducted  by  a 
servant  to  Mr.  Harrison,  who  was  talking  with  Miss 
Boiling,  in  the  conservatory.  No  one  was  with  them 
when  the  messenger  delivered  a  paper  to  the  gov 
ernor.  He  glanced  at  the  document,  then  wrote  a 
few  words  on  the  back  of  it;  and  then  he  drew  a 
paper  from  his  pocket,  which  he  signed.  He  handed 
both  to  the  messenger,  saying  nothing  to  Miss  Boll- 
ing,  and  Miss  Boiling  saying  nothing  to  him,  until 
after  the  messenger  left. 

"  I  hear  the  music  of  the  minuet,  Miss  Boiling,  so 
I  must  ask  you  to  excuse  me." 

"Go  along,  John;  I  shall  have  to  surrender  you 
to  your  partner,  as  much  as  I  dote  on  you." 

Not  until  an  hour  after  supper,  when  some  of  the 
guests  had  left  for  their  homes,  did  John  Harrison 
and  Lelia  Braxton  meet  in  a  place  where  they  would 
be  uninterrupted  for  a  few  minutes,  in  the  conserva 
tory.  Neither  spoke  for  more  than  a  minute. 

"That  messenger  brought  the  Riddleberger  bill. 
He  took  it  back  with  your  veto." 

John  Harrison  made  no  reply. 

"Now  I  am  ready  to  be  your  wife." 

•  .  .  •  • 

And  Virginia? 

VIRGINIA  is  DEAD. 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000128720     o 


